We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
Yes. China has already decided what to do and how to handle the collective West. Make no mistake about this. It’s already decided.
Now, in this article are some videos. If there is any one that you should watch, then please make sure that your watch the first one.
So the USA is going to commit “suicide by cop” and all of us are just helpless spectators, who watch in utter horror by the insanity of our “leaders”.
How are you going to deal with it?
China warns, guardrails are coming off
"The rest of the world looks on in quiet horror..."
China’s factory activity stuns with fastest growth in a decade
Liangping Gao and Joe Cash
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BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest pace in more than a decade in February, an official index showed on Wednesday, smashing expectations as production zoomed after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions late last year.
The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) shot up to 52.6 from 50.1 in January, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, above the 50-point mark that separates expansion and contraction in activity. The PMI far exceeded an analyst forecast of 50.5 and was the highest reading since April 2012.
The world’s second-largest economy recorded one of its worst years in nearly half a century in 2022 due to strict COVID lockdowns and subsequent widespread infections. The curbs were abruptly lifted in December as the highly transmissible Omicron spread across the country.
Global markets cheered the big surprise in the PMI with Asian stocks and the Australian dollar reversing earlier losses, the offshore yuan perking up and oil rallying, as investors took a more optimistic view on China’s economic prospects.
“The high PMI readings partly reflect the economy’s weak starting point coming into this year and are likely to drop back before long as the pace of the recovery slows,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics.
“We had already been expecting a rapid near-term rebound, but the latest data suggest that even our above-consensus forecasts for growth of 5.5% this year may prove too conservative.”
Markets expect the annual meeting of parliament, which kicks off this weekend, will set economic targets and elect new top economic officials.
Saul Goodman || Escape (The Pina Colada Song)
Beef and Smoked Mozzarella
Stuffed Focaccia with Pesto
2023 03 15 06 21
Cook’s Tips
Other crusty bread loaves of similar weight, such as Italian or French bread, may be substituted for focaccia. Cut loaf horizontally in half and proceed as directed above.
Regular mozzarella or provolone may be substituted for smoked cheese.
Ingredients
1 pound beef Top Sirloin Steak boneless or Top Round Steak, cut 3/4 to 1 inch thick or Flank Steak
1/4 cup prepared basil pesto sauce, divided
1 (8 to 10 ounce) loaf focaccia bread, cut horizontally in half
4 ounces smoked mozzarella or provolone cheese, sliced 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick
1 medium plum tomato, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
Instructions
Cut beef steak lengthwise in half, then crosswise into 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick strips.
Combine 2 tablespoons pesto and beef in medium bowl.
Cover and marinate in refrigerator 30 minutes to 2 hours.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Remove some bread from center of cut sides of loaf if very thick, creating a pocket.
Spread remaining 2 tablespoons pesto evenly over cut sides of bread; top each half evenly with cheese.
Place on metal baking sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees F 8 to 10 minutes or until heated through and cheese melts.
Meanwhile heat large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot.
Add 1/2 of beef; stir-fry 1 to 3 minutes or until outside surface of beef is no longer pink. (Do not overcook.)
Remove from skillet.
Repeat with remaining beef.
Using slotted spoon, place beef over bottom half of bread; top with tomatoes.
Close sandwich, pressing together slightly. Cut into 4 wedges.
The Drums Of War With China Are Beating Much Louder Now
Comments from both Washington and Beijing have suddenly become much more pointed and aggressive in recent days, with talk about hot war now being discussed as not just a real possibility but in many cases as a probability. Let’s have a look at some of the most significant recent developments.
“Western countries—led by the U.S.—have implemented all-round containment, encirclement and suppression against us, bringing unprecedentedly severe challenges to our country’s development,” President Xi Jinping said in a speech last week.
China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang followed up on Xi’s comments the next day with a warning of “conflict and confrontation” should US aggressions and encirclement continue.
“If the United States does not hit the brake, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing, and there surely will be conflict and confrontation,” he said, adding, “Who will bear the catastrophic consequences? Such competition is a reckless gamble with the stakes being the fundamental interests of the two peoples and even the future of humanity.”
One of the most hilarious empire narratives we’re being asked to believe today is that the US is militarily encircling its number one rival China, on the other side of the planet, defensively. The US is very plainly the aggressor in this standoff, and China is very clearly reacting defensively to those aggressions.
These comments come not long after PRC Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning issued a stern warning to the US to “stop walking on the edge, stop using the salami tactics, stop pushing the envelope, and stop sowing confusion and trying to mislead the world on Taiwan,” calling the Taiwan issue “the first red line that must not be crossed” in US-China relations. As we’ve discussed previously, these increasingly frequent “red line” warnings are very similar to the ones that were being issued with greater and greater urgency by Moscow before US brinkmanship provoked the invasion of Ukraine.
Committing to war with China over Taiwan
The official head of the US intelligence cartel made some comments before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday which appear to have put the final nail in the coffin of the question of Washington’s “strategic ambiguity” on whether the US would go to war with China in defense of Taiwan.
Asked by Congressman Chris Stewart about President Biden’s increasingly explicit assertions that the US would go to war with China over Taiwan, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines asserted that, despite the White House’s repeated walk-backs of those claims, it is clear to China that this is in fact Washington’s actual policy on the Taiwan question.
“In this particular case, I think it is clear to the Chinese what our position is based on the president’s comments,” Haines said.
US officials are talking about war with China like it’s a foregone conclusion
There’s been a marked spike in rhetoric from US officials about war with China being something that’s inevitably going to happen, or even something that is already underway.
At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, Senator John Cornyn expressed concern that difficulties in replenishing weapons stocks from the proxy war in Ukraine indicate that the US may not yet be “ready” to fight a “shooting war in Asia.”
“I think the war in Ukraine has demonstrated the weakness of our industrial base when it comes to replenishing the weapons that we are supplying to the Ukrainians,” said Cornyn. “In World War Two we became the Arsenal of Democracy and saved Britain and Europe, but if we got involved in a shooting war in Asia, we would not be ready.”
“I know what war looks like — we’re at war,” Congressman Tony Gonzales said at a House Homeland Security hearing on Thursday.
“I mean, this is a war, maybe a Cold War. But this is a war with China,” Gonzales added, citing things like Chinese aircraft intercepting US aircraft on China’s border and China “invading Taiwan via their cyberspace” as evidence that the US is “at war” with the PRC.
A direct war between nuclear powers
The US war machine is making it more and more explicit that its position on Taiwan is very different from its position on Ukraine, in that it will directly commit American troops to fighting a hot war with China over Taiwan. This is especially concerning because US military encirclement and provocations with Taiwan are making that war more and more likely, in the same way western provocations made the war in Ukraine more likely.
“Sending more weapons to Taiwan isn’t ‘deterrence,’ it’s a provocation,” tweeted Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp, who’s been documenting US provocations in Taiwan more thoroughly than anyone else I know of. “It’s clear now that increasing US military support for Taiwan will make a Chinese attack more likely. Anyone who is telling you otherwise is wrong or is purposely deceiving you.”
Indeed, University College Cork professor Geoffrey Roberts has argued that Putin chose to wage a “preventative war” on Ukraine with the calculation that the way the west was turning it into a major military power meant it needed to be confronted early before it became a major threat. The exact same thing could easily be happening with Taiwan.
“China is the big one,” DeCamp also tweeted recently. “Both sides are talking as if war is inevitable. Not a proxy war, a direct war between two nuclear powers. It can’t happen. The US needs to change course and stop its military buildup in the Asia Pacific, or we’re doomed.”
Couldn’t have put it better myself. This must be opposed, and opposed forcefully. Now more than ever, humanity appears to be on track toward the unfolding of a chain of events that leads to the worst thing that could possibly happen.
Some sanity from the mainstream media
To close with some good news, the imperial media are apparently not fully aligned with the war-with-China agenda (at least not yet). All the insane hawkishness mentioned above appears to have scared some sense into some influential voices in the mainstream media, with surprisingly anti-war arguments emerging in the last few days.
In an article titled “Who Benefits From Confrontation With China?“, none other than the New York Times editorial board taps the brakes with a wildly US-biased but still-welcome argument that “America’s increasingly confrontational posture toward China is a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy that warrants greater scrutiny and debate.”
“Americans’ interests are best served by emphasizing competition with China while minimizing confrontation. Glib invocations of the Cold War are misguided,” NYT argues.
In a Washington Post article titled “Democrats and Republicans agree on China. That’s a problem.“, Max Boot (yes, that Max Boot!) argues that the bipartisan foreign policy consensus on escalations against Beijing are a sign that something dangerously ill-advised is in the works.
“The problem today isn’t that Americans are insufficiently concerned about the rise of China. The problem is that they are prey to hysteria and alarmism that could lead the United States into a needless nuclear war,” Boot writes.
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria echoes Boot’s criticism of the Washington foreign policy orthodoxy, saying that “Washington has embraced a wide-ranging consensus on China that has turned into a classic example of groupthink.”
A new Financial Times piece titled “China is right about US containment” acknowledges that Xi Jinping’s aforementioned comments about encirclement and suppression are “not technically wrong,” and says that betting on China’s submission in the new cold war “is not a strategy.”
It remains to be seen if these sentiments will be sustained in the mainstream media. Even if they are, they may just be the liberal media counterpart to the way some right wingers in the mainstream media like Tucker Carlson are permitted to object to US foreign policy toward Russia as long as they continue to support brinkmanship with China (all the outlets I just mentioned have been enthusiastic supporters of US proxy warfare in Ukraine, after all). This may be yet another instance of the way the empire gets the mainstream herd arguing over how imperial agendas of global domination should be enacted, rather than if they should.
Time will tell whether any sanity erupts from the muck of the empire regarding the possibility of igniting the most horrific war imaginable. As always with such things, I remain cautiously pessimistic.
How China is Crushing the US in Tech: The Shocking Truth Revealed
Russia And China Draw ‘Red Lines’ On Their Borders; US Draws Them On The Other Side Of The Planet
Reacting to China’s announcement that it will be putting forward a proposal for a political settlement to end the war in Ukraine, the US ambassador to the United Nations said that if China begins arming Russia in that conflict this will be a “red line” for the United States.
“We welcome the Chinese announcement that they want peace because that’s what we always want to pursue in situations like this. But we also have to be clear that if there are any thoughts and efforts by the Chinese and others to provide lethal support to the Russians in their brutal attack against Ukraine, that that is unacceptable,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CNN on Sunday.
“That would be a red line,” she said.
The ambassador’s comments pertained to an unsubstantiated claim made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday that China is “considering providing lethal support to Russia in the war against Ukraine,” according to US intelligence.
The US has been making evidence-free claims in relation to China arming Russia against Ukraine since the war began. In March of last year the New York Times reported that “Russia asked China to give it military equipment and support for the war in Ukraine after President Vladimir V. Putin began a full-scale invasion last month, according to U.S. officials.” Then in April of last year NBC reported that this claim “lacked hard evidence” and was essentially just a lie the US government told the media “as part of an information war against Russia.”
The mass media have eagerly participated in promoting this latest re-emergence of narratives about China supplying weapons to Russia, with the Wall Street Journal running a piece just the other day titled “Chinese Drones Still Support Russia’s War in Ukraine, Trade Data Show.” But as commentator Matthew Petti has observed, buried deep in that article is an acknowledgement that these China-made camera drones aren’t even coming from China; they’re being purchased by Russian middlemen in nations like the United Arab Emirates. Really it’s just a story about how China manufactures a lot of products, disguised as something scandalous.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin knocked back Blinken’s claims at a press conference shortly after they were made, saying the US is in no position to be accusing anyone of pouring arms into the war.
“It is the US, not China, that has been pouring weapons into the battlefield,” he said. “The US is in no position to tell China what to do. We would never stand for finger-pointing, or even coercion and pressurizing from the US on our relations with Russia.”
Indeed, Washington is warning Beijing with a “red line” against doing something that Washington does constantly, and is currently doing to an unprecedented extent in Ukraine. The US sends weapons to proxy forces all over the world, including to Saudi Arabia in facilitation of its mass atrocities in Yemen, to Al Qaeda and its aligned forces in facilitation of the western dirty war on Syria, and to Israel in facilitation of its apartheid regime and its nonstop attacks on its neighbors. Ukraine is Washington’s biggest proxy warfare operation yet, so it’s a bit rich for it to be drawing “red lines” on the other side of the planet regarding an activity the US spent $113 billion on last year.
And that’s the major difference between the US and nations like Russia and China. When Russia and China draw red lines, it’s at their own borders and regards their own national security interests. When the US draws red lines, it’s far from its own borders and unrelated to the security of the nation.
During the lead-up to the invasion of Ukraine, Putin warned over and over again that the west was taking Moscow’s “red lines” on Ukrainian neutrality too lightly, and Washington brazenly dismissed those warnings while continuing to float the possibility of future NATO membership for Ukraine.
“I don’t accept anybody’s red lines,” President Biden told the press in December of 2021 when asked about the warnings.
Weeks later Putin made good on his threat, launching a horrific war that could easily have been prevented with a little diplomacy and sensibility.
“This is that red line that I talked about multiple times,” Putin said. “They have crossed it.”
Similarly, Beijing has been using the phrase “red line” with regard to Taiwan and the US empire’s rapidly escalating provocations on that front. China used it multipletimes last year warning against then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island, which Beijing regards as an egregious violation of Washington’s One China policy. As Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp frequentlynotes, this marked the beginning a new level of hostilities from Beijing which now sees frequent military crossings of the median line between Taiwan and mainland China that weren’t commonplace before.
Whether you agree with Moscow and Beijing about their “red lines” or not, you must concede that there’s a very big difference between the way they draw them and the way the US makes use of that concept. Russia and China are issuing these warnings about the areas immediately adjacent to their own territory, while the US issues them to anyone it likes about what they are permitted to do with their neighbors, even when the US itself engages in those very activities all the time.
Washington literally thinks of this entire planet as its territory. It believes it is its divinely bestowed right to issue decrees about what may and may not be done anywhere in the world, and that any transgression against these decrees is an act of aggression against it.
We see this evidenced in the way US officials talk about the world. Just in January of last year President Biden said that “everything south of the Mexican border is America’s front yard.” That same month then-Press Secretary Jen Psaki remarked on the mounting tensions around Ukraine that it is in America’s interest to support “our eastern flank countries”, which might come as a surprise to those who were taught in school that America’s eastern flank was not eastern Europe but the eastern coastline of the United States. You’ll see the imperial media refer to things like the vague prospect of China maybe someday building a military base in the African nation of Equatorial Guinea as a menacing encroachment upon America’s “backyard”.
It’s just so crazy how the US government has the temerity to publicly rend its garments in outrage over foreign nations making demands about what happens on their own borders while it continually makes demands about what happens everywhere in the world. It wails and moans about its enemies asserting small “spheres of influence” over former Soviet states or the South China Sea, while it itself asserts a sphere of influence that looks like planet Earth.
Whenever you point out how the US is the worst offender in any area it criticizes other governments for you’ll find yourself accused of “whataboutism”, but what this actually means is that you have highlighted evidence that the US does not play by its own rules and does not actually value the issues it’s trying to moralize about. The US is not trying to stop foreign nations from bullying and dominating their neighbors, it’s trying to bash out more space for itself to bully and dominate the world.
Platoon- Crossfire scene
The Bank Crisis – The big Picture . . . Inevitable Collapse . . . less than 1 year?
As the present, ongoing, Bank crisis emerged, many have struggled to see the “big picture” to plan for the future. Well, this is the big picture:
We are in a credit/debt crisis loop.
Banks are undercapitalized. They need more cash as capital, but to get the cash, they need to borrow it. More borrowing causes higher interest rates, which means more debt, for which they will again have to borrow . . . and on and on and on it would go. Until it collapses.
When the government passed out all that free money during the COVID pandemic, that money flowed into bank accounts. With BASEL 3 banking requirements, banks had to have a percentage of Tier 1 assets that could be liquidated pretty darn quick in case the bank needed to raise money fast.
“Tier 1 assets” means government treasuries . . . and at that time, when banks HAD to buy government treasuries to have Tier 1 assets, the yield on those Treasury bonds was pretty much 0.
Now, with the federal reserve raising rates at such a furious pace, all those bonds the Banks bought . . . have lost value. Why would I want to buy your bond yielding almost nothing, when the current 2-year Treasury Bond is yielding 4.10%? A week ago it was 5%.
So the banks can’t sell it at face value. They would have to sell the bond at a loss in order to make it sell at all.
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) did this to raise capital due to the outflows of cash, and took an almost 2 billion dollar loss. This is called “unrealized losses.”
As you read this story, the total of unrealized losses in the banking system is 620 billion dollars.
Now, the federal reserve is saying if a Bank needs capital, the Bank can borrow against their Treasury bonds and Mortgage Backed Securities, at “par” (face value) because if they did it mark-to-market, the sale would be a loss and not help at all.
The reason for all the red in the banking sector today is because investors aren’t sure who holds a lot of the older bonds and is under-capitalized in case distresses comes along.
Pausing the interest rate hike won’t do anything to solve this problem; the only solution is to lower the rates back down until the older bonds could be sold on the open market for pretty much face value.
BUT . . . That would cause rapidly rising inflation as well as a faster flight to de-dollarization by foreign countries, and then we are on the road to hyper-inflation.
Conversely, if they continue to raise the Interest rate . . . well . . . . .the financial collapse would make the great depression look like the roaring 20’s. . . . and that would probably be a best case.
So the Banks (and government) are literally trapped by a problem of their own making. They face a choice: Save the Banks OR, save the dollar. They can’t do both.
This week, they made their choice: Save the banks.
So from this moment, the Shit is flying through the air and is about to meet the fan.
Some Bankers Are Already Sounding the Alarm
Morgan Stanley, MS, says sell any bounce on this government intervention, next leg of bear market has begun.
On March 2, Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson gave his thoughts on the current state of the stock market, saying it is now in a “death zone” with predictions of its potentially massive drop. Wilson estimates that the S&P 500 could drop down to 3,000 points within the month, which is a 26% slump.
Wilson said that US stocks have reached “unsustainable heights” and that investors were like climbers who were pushing towards the top without being able to consider the risks properly. The move by investors was likened to “blindly” pushing toward the top of Mount Everest.
Wilson: “Many fatalities in high-altitude mountaineering have been caused by the death zone, either directly through loss of vital functions, or indirectly by wrong decisions made under stress or physical weakening that lead to accidents,”
Morgan Stanley’s chief US equity strategist said that the current valuations have much in common with the “death zone,” which is Mount Everest’s top where oxygen is extremely low. Basically, it meant that it was in the dangerous territory since the “death zone” is where many climbers lost their life.
Wilson: “This is a perfect analogy for where equity investors find themselves today, and quite frankly, where they’ve been many times over the past decade,”
Year-to-date, the S&P 500 was around 6%, and Nasdaq Composite was up by 13%.
It was also recently reported that the Federal Reserve was unlikely to be able to bring down inflation without increasing interest rates even more, which would cause a recession. This came from Former Fed Governor Frederic Mishkin’s research paper.
So the Stock Market does not appear to be the place to be if one is trying to protect wealth – or even earn a profit down the road.
TREASURY MARKET SIGNALING “RECESSION”
The Treasury market is signaling that a recession is all but inevitable if history is any guide. As concerns about the financial health of the US banking sector mount, benchmark yields on every maturity of Treasury — from three-month T-bills to 30-year bonds — have fallen below 4.75%, the upper end of the Federal Reserve’s range for its key benchmark rate.
They have fallen because people view Treasuries as a safe haven and are now flooding the Treasury Bond market with money. Since everyone wants “safety” the Treasury can afford to drop the rate of interest it is willing to pay, because buyers of Treasuries are looking for safety, not necessarily rate of return.
According to Yahoo News, Since 1977, such a move has foreshadowed every economic downturn, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Its predictive powers were off only once in 1998, when the Fed slashed rates after the collapse of hedge fund Long Term Capital Management but a recession never materialized.
The steep drop in Treasury yields reflects speculation that the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and two other lenders may hasten the end of the Fed’s rate hikes amid concern about spreading contagion. Two-year yields fell 54 basis points Monday, the biggest drop since Black Friday in 1987, when the S&P 500 tumbled 21%.
Big Shots Saying “The End”
Did you catch his time frame? He wrote “. . . this year.”
And actual Money People are saying worse:
To put this week’s events into perspective, take a look at this chart showing the size of ALL Bank Failures since the year 2000:
Size of bank failures since 2000
The 2008 failure of Washington Mutual Bank is what triggered the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, when the $307 Billion dollar bank, failed.
This week, the two banks that failed, Silicon Valley and Signature Banks, are together, BIGGER than Washington Mutual. So that puts into perspective how destructive their failures will prove to be in the days and weeks to come.
This is, without doubt, a financial and economic catastrophe.
The unraveling can happen in an instant.
A week ago, everything was still fine. Then, within a matter of days, SVB’s stock price plunged, depositors pulled their money, and the bank failed. Poof.
The same thing happened with Lehman Brothers in 2008. In fact over the past few years we’ve been subjected to example after example of our entire world changing in an instant.
We all remember that March 2020 was still fairly normal, at least in North America. Within a matter of days people were locked in their homes and life as we knew it had fundamentally changed.
This is going to keep happening.
This is a financial catastrophe, but it’s just getting started. Like Lehman Brothers in 2008, SVB is just the tip of the iceberg. There will be other casualties – not just in banks, but money market funds, insurance companies, and even businesses.
Foreign banks and institutions are also suffering losses on their US government bonds… and that has negative implications on the US dollar’s reserve status.
Think about it: it’s bad enough that the US national debt is outrageously high, that the federal government appears to be a bunch of fools incapable of solving any problem, and that inflation is terrible.
But no one in charge seems to understand any of this.
The guy who shakes hands with thin air insisted this morning that the banking system is safe. Nothing to see here, people.
The Federal Reserve– which is the ringleader of this sad circus– doesn’t seem to understand anything either.
In fact Fed leadership spent all of last week insisting that they were going to keep raising interest rates.
Even after last week’s banking crisis, the Fed probably still hasn’t figured it out. They appear totally out of touch with what’s really happening in the economy. And when they meet again next week, it’s possible they’ll raise rates even higher (and trigger even more unrealized losses).
So this drama is far from over.
WHAT TO DO?
There’s an ill-wind blowing and we, (you and me) are on the wrong side of it. What to do?
Many people are saying buy Gold and Silver.
I get why they are saying that. Gold and Silver Bullion are protection for wealth. They store wealth right there inside themselves. Gold and Silver will ALWAYS have a value no matter what means of commerce is in effect. If the US Dollar becomes worthless or is de-monetized as “legal tender” whatever replaces it, will have a price in Gold in Silver. So the holding of Gold and Silver would, necessarily, STORE wealth. I emphasized the word “holding” because if you don’t physically HOLD the gold, then you don’t own it.
Buying Gold or Silver “on paper” and letting someone ELSE store it for you, makes it “not yours.” So if you’re going to buy precious metals, you better have them delivered into your hands, because what’s not in your hand, is not yours.
Here’s the problem with Gold and Silver . . . . government can make owning those metals, “illegal.” They did it once with Gold way back under President Roosevelt. They might try doing that again.
So what else can one do to preserve wealth?
Well, I am NOT a licensed financial planner or expert, and so I cannot give financial advice. You should speak with a Licensed financial expert before making any financial decisions.
Having said that, as a layman, and not an expert in any way, I have made the personal decision to put my “dollars” into something which is not “dollars.”
Maybe you should too.
Whether it is Real Estate, or precious Gems, or . . . . anything tangible that holds its wealth within itself, is better than holding “dollars.”
Sooner or later, those “Dollars” are, in fact, going to become worthless. That is assured now that the government and bankers have done what they’ve done in this latest banking crisis.
Look to the collapse of the Soviet Union and Venezuela as good indicators of what happened. But remember there will be large difference since this collapse will be larger than any in history.
It’s only a matter of time now. And the clock is ticking.
Putin APPROVES U.S. Military Asset Attack…US Pentagon FUMES
Cheesteak Po’Boy
Yield: 1 sandwich
2023 03 15 06 25
Ingredients
6 super-thin slices beef
2 teaspoons oil
Salt and pepper
French loaf, split
3 slices mozzarella cheese
1 cup very thinly-sliced onions
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a very hot skillet sear beef in 1 teaspoon of oil, about 30 seconds per side, or until just browned.
Season with salt and black pepper.
Stuff meat into open bread loaf.
Top with cheese and bake until bread is slightly crispy and cheese is melted.
Meanwhile, heat remaining oil in the same skillet and sauté onions until tender.
When sandwich is ready, top sandwich with onions.
Serve with potato chips.
Russians down a USA operated military drone
On the 14th local time, the Russian Ministry of Defense issued a statement on the discovery of US drones over the Black Sea waters that day.
The statement pointed out that on the morning of the 14th, the airspace monitoring equipment of the Russian Air and Space Army found a US MQ-9 UAV flying towards the Russian national border over the Black Sea waters. During the flight, the UAV turned off the transponder, violating the boundary of the area demarcated by the temporary airspace use system established for Russia’s special military operations. The system has been notified to all users of international airspace and published in accordance with international norms.
The Russian Defense Ministry stressed that in order to identify the invaders, the fighter planes on duty of the Russian air defense forces were launched. At about 9:30 on the same day, the MQ-9 UAV lost control due to large angle maneuvers, gradually lost its altitude and collided with the water. The Russian fighter aircraft did not use airborne weapons during this process, did not contact the UAV, and returned to the airport safely.
Earlier that day, a US Air Force commander said that a US MQ-9 UAV was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 fighter plane on the same day, and the US UAV fell into the Black Sea after being hit.
Oh SH*T, Here we go
The American people have no say in what our military does. This is insane.
Imagine that you died. And there, as you are leaving your body, you are welcomed with long dead friends, and relatives. They welcome you, and it is a joyous time. They take you by the hand and lead you towards the bright tunnel of light.
Would you go with them?
This is a story that ponders that question.
…
Without a doubt one of the Bradbury stories that has made the biggest impression on me. It’s about strategy.
And horror.
The story is taken from Bradbury’s amazing The Martian Chronicles, a collection of short stories strung together to tell the story of what happens when human beings try to colonize Mars.
In this particular tale, an expedition from Earth to Mars encounters a town that seems eerily, yet comfortingly, familiar to them. It’s even populated by long-lost relatives and family.
But, of course, it doesn’t have a happy ending.
The Third Expedition by Ray Bradbury
The ship came down from space. It came from the stars and
the black velocities, and the shining movements, and the silent
gulfs of space. It was a new ship; it had fire in its body and
men in its metal cells, and it moved with a clean silence,
fiery and warm. In it were seventeen men, induding a captain.
The crowd at the Ohio field had shouted and waved their hands
up into the sunlight, and the rocket had bloomed out great
flowers of heat and color and run away into space on the
_third_ voyage to Mars!
Now it was decelerating with metal efficiency in the
upper Martian atmospheres. It was still a thing of beauty
and strength. It had moved in the midnight waters of space like
a pale sea leviathan; it had passed the ancient moon and thrown
itself onward into one nothingness following another. The men
within it had been battered, thrown about, sickened, made well
again, each in his turn. One man had died, but now the
remaining sixteen, with their eyes clear in their heads and
their faces pressed to the thick glass ports, watched Mars
swing up under them.
“Mars!” cried Navigator Lustig.
“Good old Mars!” said Samuel Hinkston, archaeologist.
“Well,” said Captain John Black.
The rocket landed on a lawn of green grass. Outside, upon
this lawn, stood an iron deer. Further up on the green stood
a tall brown Victorian house, quiet in the sunlight, all
covered with scrolls and rococo, its windows made of blue and
pink and yellow and green colored glass. Upon the porch were
hairy geraniums and an old swing which was hooked into the
porch ceiling and which now swung back and forth, back and
forth, in a little breeze. At the summit of the house was a
cupola with diamond leaded-glass windows and a dunce-cap roof!
Through the front window you could see a piece of music
titled “Beautiful Ohio” sitting on the music rest.
Around the rocket in four directions spread the little
town, green and motionless in the Martian spring. There were
white houses and red brick ones, and tall elm trees blowing in
the wind, and tall maples and horse chestnuts. And church
steeples with golden bells silent in them.
The rocket men looked out and saw this. Then they looked
at one another and then they looked out again. They held to
each other’s elbows, suddenly unable to breathe, it seemed,
Their faces grew pale.
“I’ll be damned,” whispered Lustig, rubbing his face with
his numb fingers. “I’ll be damned.”
“It just can’t be,” said Samuel Hinkston.
“Lord,” said Captain John Black.
There was a call from the chemist. “Sir, the atmosphere
is thin for breathing. But there’s enough oxygen. It’s safe.”
“Then we’ll go out,” said Lustig.
“Hold on,” said Captain John Black. “How do we know what
this is?”
“It’s a small town with thin but breathable air in it,
sir.”
“And it’s a small town the like of Earth towns,” said
Hinkston, the archaeologist “Incredible. It can’t be, but it
_is_.”
Captain John Black looked at him idly. “Do you think that
the civilizations of two planets can progress at the same rate
and evolve in the same way, Hinkston?”
“I wouldn’t have thought so, sir.”
Captain Black stood by the port. “Look out there.
The geraniums. A specialized plant. That specific variety has
only been known on Earth for fifty years. Think of the
thousands of years it takes to evolve plants. Then tell me if
it is logical that the Martians should have: one, leaded-glass
windows; two, cupolas; three, porch swings; four, an instrument
that looks like a piano and probably is a piano; and five, if
you look closely through this telescopic lens here, is it
logical that a Martian composer would have published a piece
of music titled, strangely enough, ‘Beautiful Ohio’? All of
which means that we have an Ohio River on Mars!”
“Captain Williams, of course!” cried Hinkston,
“What?”
“Captain Williams and his crew of three men! Or Nathaniel
York and his partner. That would explain it!”
“That would explain absolutely nothing. As far as we’ve
been able to figure, the York expedition exploded the day
it reached Mars, killing York and his partner. As for Williams
and his three men, their ship exploded the second day after
their arrival. At least the pulsations from their radios ceased
at that time, so we figure that if the men were alive after
that they’d have contacted us. And anyway, the York expedition
was only a year ago, while Captain Williams and his men landed
here some time during last August. Theorizing that they are
still alive, could they, even with the help of a brilliant
Martian race, have built such a town as this and _aged_ it in
so short a time? Look at that town out there; why, it’s been
standing here for the last seventy years. Look at the wood on
the porch newel; look at the trees, a century old, all of them!
No, this isn’t York’s work or Williams’. It’s something else.
I don’t like it. And I’m not leaving the ship until I know what
it is.”
“For that matter,” said Lustig, nodding, “Williams and his
men, as well as York, landed on the _opposite_ side of Mars.
We were very careful to land on _this_ side.”
“An excellent point. Just in case a hostile local tribe
of Martians killed off York and Williams, we have instructions
to land in a further region, to forestall a recurrence of such
a disaster. So here we are, as far as we know, in a land
that Williams and York never saw.”
“Damn it,” said Hinkston, “I want to get out into this
town, sir, with your permission. It may be there are similar
thought patterns, civilization graphs on every planet in our
sun system. We may be on the threshold of the greatest
psychological and metaphysical discovery of our age!”
“I’m willing to wait a moment,” said Captain John Black.
“It may be, sir, that we’re looking upon a phenomenon
that, for the first time, would absolutely prove the existence
of God, sir.”
“There are many people who are of good faith without such
proof, Mr. Hinkston.”
“I’m one myself, sir. But certainly a town like this could
not occur without divine intervention. The _detail_. It fills
me with such feelings that I don’t know whether to laugh or
cry.”
“Do neither, then, until we know what we’re up against.”
“Up against?” Lustig broke in. “Against nothing, Captain.
It’s a good, quiet green town, a lot like the old-fashioned one
I was born in. I like the looks of it.”
“When were you born, Lustig?”
“Nineteen-fifty, sir.”
“And you, Hinkston?”
“Nineteen fifty-five, sir. Grinnell, Iowa. And this looks
like home to me.”
“Hinkston, Lustig, I could be either of your fathers. I’m
just eighty years old. Born in 1920 in Illinois, and through
the grace of God and a science that, in the last fifty years,
knows how to make _some_ old men young again, here I am on
Mars, not any more tired than the rest of you, but infinitely
more suspicious. This town out here looks very peaceful and
cool, and so much like Green Bluff, Illinois, that it frightens
me. It’s too _much_ like Green Bluff.” He turned to the
radioman. “Radio Earth. Tell them we’ve landed. That’s all.
Tell them we’ll radio a full report tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir.”
Captain Black looked out the rocket port with his face
that should have been the face of a man eighty but seemed like
the face of a man in his fortieth year. “Tell you what we’ll
do, Lustig; you and I and Hinkston’ll look the town over. The
other men’ll stay aboard. If anything happens they can get the
hell out. A loss of three men’s better than a whole ship.
If something bad happens, our crew can warn the next rocket.
That’s Captain Wilder’s rocket, I think, due to be ready to
take off next Christmas. if there’s something hostile about
Mars we certainly want the next rocket to be well armed.”
“So are we. We’ve got a regular arsenal with us.”
“Tell the men to stand by the guns then. Come on,
Lustig, Hinkston.”
The three men walked together down through the levels of
the ship.
It was a beautiful spring day. A robin sat on a blossoming
apple tree and sang continuously. Showers of petal snow sifted
down when the wind touched the green branches, and the blossom
scent drifted upon the air. Somewhere in the town someone
was playing the piano and the music came and went, came and
went, softly, drowsily. The song was “Beautiful Dreamer.”
Somewhere else a phonograph, scratchy and faded, was hissing
out a record of “Roamin’ in the Gloamin’,” sung by Harry
Lauder.
The three men stood outside the ship. They sucked and
gasped at the thin, thin air and moved slowly so as not to
tire themselves.
Now the phonograph record being played was:
“_Oh, give me a June night
The moonlight and you_ . . .”
Lustig began to tremble. Samuel Hinkston did likewise.
The sky was serene and quiet, and somewhere a stream of
water ran through the cool caverns and tree shadings of a
ravine. Somewhere a horse and wagon trotted and rolled by,
bumping.
“Sir,” said Samuel Hinkston, “it must be, it _has_ to be,
that rocket travel to Mars began in the years before the first
World War!”
“No.”
“How else can you explain these houses, the iron deer,
the pianos, the music?” Hinkston took the captain’s elbow
persuasively and looked into the captain’s face. “Say that
there were people in the year 1905 who hated war and got
together with some scientists in secret and built a rocket and
came out here to Mars–”
“No, no, Hinkston.”
“Why not? The world was a different world in 1905; they
could have kept it a secret much more easily.”
“But a complex thing like a rocket, no, you couldn’t keep
it secret.”
“And they came up here to live, and naturally the houses
they built were similar to Earth houses because they brought
the culture with them.”
“And they’ve lived here all these years?” said the
captain.
“In peace and quiet, yes. Maybe they made a few trips,
enough to bring enough people here for one small town, and
then stopped for fear of being discovered. That’s why this town
seems so old-fashioned. I don’t see a thing, myself, older than
the year 1927, do you? Or maybe, sir, rocket travel is older
than we think. Perhaps it started in some part of the world
centuries ago and was kept secret by the small number of men
who came to Mars with only occasional visits to Earth over
the centuries.”
“You make it sound almost reasonable.”
“It has to be. We’ve the proof here before us; all we have
to do is find some people and verify it.”
Their boots were deadened of all sound in the thick green
grass. It smelled from a fresh mowing. In spite of himself,
Captain John Black felt a great peace come over him. It had
been thirty years since he had been in a small town, and the
buzzing of spring bees on the air lulled and quieted him, and
the fresh look of things was a balm to the soul.
They set foot upon the porch. Hollow echoes sounded from
under the boards as they walked to the screen door. Inside they
could see a bead curtain hung across the hall entry, and a
crystal chandelier and a Maxfield Parrish painting framed on
one wall over a comfortable Morris chair. The house smelled
old, and of the attic, and infinitely comfortable. You could
hear the tinkle of ice in a lemonade pitcher. In a distant
kitchen, because of the heat of the day, someone was preparing
a cold lunch. Someone was humming under her breath, high and
sweet.
Captain John Black rang the bell.
Footsteps, dainty and thin, came along the hall, and
a kind-faced lady of some forty years, dressed in a sort of
dress you might expect in the year 1909, peered out at them.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Beg your pardon,” said Captain Black uncertainly. “But
we’re looking for–that is, could you help us–” He stopped.
She looked out at him with dark, wondering eyes.
“If you’re selling something–” she began.
“No, wait!” he cried. “What town is this?”
She looked him up and down. “What do you mean, what town
is it? How could you be in a town and not know the name?”
The captain looked as if he wanted to go sit under a shady
apple tree. “We’re strangers here. We want to know how this
town got here and how you got here.”
“Are you census takers?”
“No.”
“Everyone knows,” she said, “this town was built in 1868.
Is this a game?”
“No, not a game!” cried the captain. “We’re from Earth.”
“Out of the _ground_, do you mean?” she wondered.
“No, we came from the third planet, Earth, in a ship. And
we’ve landed here on the fourth planet, Mars–”
“This,” explained the woman, as if she were addressing
a child, “is Green Bluff, Illinois, on the continent of
America, surrounded by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, on a
place called the world, or, sometimes, the Earth. Go away
now. Goodby.”
She trotted down the hall, running her fingers through
the beaded curtains.
The three men looked at one another.
“Let’s knock the screen door in,” said Lustig.
“We can’t do that. This is private property. Good God!”
They went to sit down on the porch step.
“Did it ever strike you, Hinkston, that perhaps we
got ourselves somehow, in some way, off track, and by accident
came back and landed on Earth?”
“How could we have done that?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know. Oh God, let me think.”
Hinkston said, “But we checked every mile of the way.
Our chronometers said so many miles. We went past the Moon and
out into space, and here we are. I’m _positive_ we’re on Mars.”
Lustig said, “But suppose, by accident, in space, in time,
we got lost in the dimensions and landed on an Earth that is
thirty or forty years ago.”
“Oh, go away, Lustig!”
Lustig went to the door, rang the bell, and called into
the cool dim rooms: “What year is this?”
“Nineteen twenty-six, of course,” said the lady, sitting
in a rocking chair, taking a sip of her lemonade.
“Did you hear that?” Lustig turned wildly to the others.
“Nineteen twenty-six! We _have_ gone back in time! This _is_
Earth!”
Lustig sat down, and the three men let the wonder and
terror of the thought afflict them. Their hands stirred
fitfully on their knees. The captain said, “I didn’t ask for
a thing like this. It scares the hell out of me. How can a
thing like this happen? I wish we’d brought Einstein with us.”
“Will anyone in this town believe us?” said Hinkston. “Are
we playing with something dangerous? Time, I mean. Shouldn’t
we just take off and go home?”
“No. Not until we try another house.”
They walked three houses down to a little white cottage
under an oak tree. “I like to be as logical as I can be,” said
the captain. “And I don’t believe we’ve put our finger on it
yet. Suppose, Hinkston, as you originally suggested, that
rocket travel occurred years ago? And when the Earth people
lived here a number of years they began to get homesick for
Earth. First a mild neurosis about it, then a full-fledged
psychosis. Then threatened insanity. What would you do as
a psychiatrist if faced with such a problem?”
Hinkston thought “Well, I think I’d rearrange the
civilization on Mars so it resembled Earth more and more each
day. If there was any way of reproducing every plant, every
road, and every lake, and even an ocean, I’d do so. Then by
some vast crowd hypnosis I’d convince everyone in a town this
size that this really _was_ Earth, not Mars at all.”
“Good enough, Hinkston. I think we’re on the right track
now. That woman in that house back there just _thinks_ she’s
living on Earth. It protects her sanity. She and all the others
in this town are the patients of the greatest experiment
in migration and hypnosis you will ever lay eyes on in your
life.”
“That’s _it_, sir!” cried Lustig.
“Right!” said Hinkston.
“Well.” The captain sighed. “Now we’ve got somewhere. I
feel better. It’s all a bit more logical. That talk about time
and going back and forth and traveling through time turns
my stomach upside down. But _this_ way–” The captain smiled.
“Well, well, it looks as if we’ll be fairly popular here.”
“Or will we?” said Lustig. “After all, like the Pilgrims,
these people came here to escape Earth. Maybe they won’t be
too happy to see us. Maybe they’ll try to drive us out or kill
us.”
“We have superior weapons. This next house now. Up we go.”
But they had hardly crossed the lawn when Lustig stopped
and looked off across the town, down the quiet, dreaming
afternoon street. “Sir,” he said.
“What is it, Lustig?”
“Oh, sir, _sir_, what I _see_–” said Lustig, and he began
to cry. His fingers came up, twisting and shaking, and his face
was all wonder and joy and incredulity. He sounded as if at
any moment he might go quite insane with happiness. He looked
down the street and began to run, stumbling awkwardly, falling,
picking himself up, and running on. “Look, look!”
“Don’t let him get away!” The captain broke into a run.
Now Lustig was running swiftly, shouting. He turned into
a yard halfway down the shady street and leaped up upon the
porch of a large green house with an iron rooster on the roof.
He was beating at the door, hollering and crying, when
Hinkston and the captain ran up behind him. They were all
gasping and wheezing, exhausted from their run in the thin
air. “Grandma! Grandpa!” cried Lustig.
Two old people stood in the doorway.
“David!” their voices piped, and they rushed out to
embrace and pat him on the back and move around him. “David,
oh, David, it’s been so many years! How you’ve grown, boy; how
big you are, boy. Oh, David boy, how are you?”
“Grandma, Grandpa!” sobbed David Lustig. “You look fine,
fine!” He held them, turned them, kissed them, hugged them,
cried on them, held them out again, blinking at the little
old people. The sun was in the sky, the wind blew, the grass
was green, the screen door stood wide.
“Come in, boy, come in. There’s iced tea for you, fresh,
lots of it!”
“I’ve got friends here.” Lustig turned and waved at the
captain and Hinkston frantically, laughing. “Captain, come on
up.”
“Howdy,” said the old people. “Come in. Any friends of
David’s are our friends too. Don’t stand there!”
In the living room of the old house it was cool, and
a grandfather clock ticked high and long and bronzed in one
corner. There were soft pillows on large couches and walls
filled with books and a rug cut in a thick rose pattern, and
iced tea in the hand, sweating, and cool on the thirsty tongue.
“Here’s to our health.” Grandma tipped her glass to
her porcelain teeth.
“How long you been here, Grandma?” said Lustig.
“Ever since we died,” she said tartly.
“Ever since you what?” Captain John Black set down his
glass.
“Oh yes.” Lustig nodded. “They’ve been dead thirty years.”
“And you sit there calmly!” shouted the captain.
“Tush.” The old woman winked glitteringly. “Who are you
to question what happens? Here we are. What’s life, anyway? Who
does what for why and where? All we know is here we are, alive
again, and no questions asked. A second chance.” She toddled
over and held out her thin wrist. “Feel.” The captain felt.
“Solid, ain’t it?” she asked. He nodded. “Well, then,” she
said triumphantly, “why go around questioning?”
“Well,” said the captain, “it’s simply that we never
thought we’d find a thing like this on Mars.”
“And now you’ve found it. I dare say there’s lots on every
planet that’ll show you God’s infinite ways.”
“Is this Heaven?” asked Hinkston.
“Nonsense, no. It’s a world and we get a second chance.
Nobody told us why. But then nobody told us why we were on
Earth, either. That other Earth, I mean. The one you came from.
How do we know there wasn’t _another_ before _that_ one?”
“A good question,” said the captain.
Lustig kept smiling at his grandparents. “Gosh, it’s good
to see you. Gosh, it’s good.”
The captain stood up and slapped his hand on his leg in
a casual fashion. “We’ve got to be going. Thank you for the
drinks.”
“You’ll be back, of course,” said the old people. “For
supper tonight?”
“We’ll try to make it, thanks. There’s so much to be done.
My men are waiting for me back at the rocket and–”
He stopped. He looked toward the door, startled.
Far away in the sunlight there was a sound of voices,
a shouting and a great hello.
“What’s that?” asked Hinkston,
“We’ll soon find out.” And Captain John Black was out the
front door abruptly, running across the green lawn into the
street of the Martian town.
He stood looking at the rocket. The ports were open and
his crew was streaming out, waving their hands. A crowd of
people had gathered, and in and through and among these people
the members of the crew were hurrying, talking, laughing,
shaking hands. People did little dances. People swarmed. The
rocket lay empty and abandoned.
A brass band exploded in the sunlight, flinging off a gay
tune from upraised tubas and trumpets. There was a bang of
drums and a shrill of fifes. Little girls with golden hair
jumped up and down. Little boys shouted, “Hooray!” Fat men
passed around ten-cent cigars. The town mayor made a speech.
Then each member of the crew, with a mother on one arm, a
father or sister on the other, was spirited off down the street
into little cottages or big mansions.
“Stop!” cried Captain Black.
The doors slammed shut.
The heat rose in the clear spring sky, and all was silent.
The brass band banged off around a corner, leaving the rocket
to shine and dazzle alone in the sunlight
“Abandoned!” said the captain. “They abandoned the ship,
they did! I’ll have their skins, by God! They had orders!”
“Sir,” said Lustig, “don’t be too hard on them. Those were
all old relatives and friends.”
“That’s no exuse!”
“Think how they felt, Captain, seeing familiar faces
outside the ship!”
“They had their orders, damn it!”
“But how would you have felt, Captain?”
“I would have obeyed orders–” The captain’s mouth
remained open.
Striding along the sidewalk under the Martian sun, tall,
smiling, eyes amazingly clear and blue, came a young man of
some twenty-six years. “John!” the man called out, and broke
into a trot.
“What?” Captain John Black swayed.
“John, you old son of a bitch!”
The man ran up and gripped his hand and slapped him on
the back.
“It’s you,” said Captain Black.
“Of course, who’d you _think_ it was?”
“Edward!” The captain appealed now to Lustig and Hinkston,
holding the stranger’s hand. “This is my brother Edward. Ed,
meet my men, Lustig, Hinkston! My brother!”
They tugged at each other’s hands and arms and then
finally embraced.
“Ed!”
“John, you bum, you!”
“You’re looking fine, Ed, but, Ed, what _is_ this? You
haven’t changed over the years. You died, I remember, when you
were twenty-six and I was nineteen. Good God, so many years
ago, and here you are and, Lord, what goes on?”
“Mom’s waiting,” said Edward Black, grinning.
“Mom?”
“And Dad too.”
“Dad?” The captain almost fell as if he had been hit by
a mighty weapon. He walked stiffly and without co.ordination.
“Mom and Dad alive? Where?”
“At the old house on Oak Knoll Avenue.”
“The old house.” The captain stared in delighted amaze.
“Did you hear that, Lustig, Hinkston?”
Hinkston was gone. He had seen his own house down the
street and was running for it. Lustig was laughing. “You
see, Captain, what happened to everyone on the rocket? They
couldn’t help themselves.”
“Yes. Yes.” The captain shut his eyes. “When I open my
eyes you’ll be gone.” He blinked. “You’re still there. God, Ed,
but you look _fine!_”
“Come on, lunch’s waiting. I told Mom.”
Lustig said, “Sir, I’ll be with my grandfolks if you need
me.”
“What? Oh, fine, Lustig. Later, then.”
Edward seized his arm and marched him. “There’s the
house. Remember it?”
“Hell! Bet I can beat you to the front porch!”
They ran. The trees roared over Captain Black’s head; the
earth roared under his feet. He saw the golden figure of Edward
Black pull ahead of him in the amazing dream of reality. He saw
the house rush forward, the screen door swing wide. “Beat you!”
cried Edward. “I’m an old man,” panted the captain, “and you’re
still young. But then, you _always_ beat me, I remember!”
In the doorway, Mom, pink, plump, and bright. Behind
her, pepper-gray, Dad, his pipe in his hand.
“Mom, Dad!”
He ran up the steps like a child to meet them.
It was a fine long afternoon. They finished a late lunch
and they sat in the parlor and he told them all about his
rocket and they nodded and smiled upon him and Mother was just
the same and Dad bit the end off a cigar and lighted
it thoughtfully in his old fashion. There was a big turkey
dinner at night and time flowing on. When the drumsticks were
sucked clean and lay brittle upon the plates, the captain
leaned back and exhaled his deep satisfaction, Night was in all
the trees and coloring the sky, and the lamps were halos of
pink light in the gentle house. From all the other houses down
the street came sounds of music, pianos playing, doors slammng.
Mom put a record on the victrola, and she and Captain John
Black had a dance. She was wearing the same perfume he
remembered from the summer when she and Dad had been killed in
the train accident. She was very real in his arms as they
danced lightly to the music. “It’s not every day,” she said,
“you get a second chance to live.”
“I’ll wake in the morning,” said the captain. “And I’ll be
in my rocket, in space, and all this will be gone.”
“No, don’t think that,” she cried softly. “Don’t question.
God’s good to us. Let’s be happy.”
“Sorry, Mom.”
The record ended in a circular hissing.
“You’re tired, Son.” Dad pointed with his pipe. “Your
old bedroom’s waiting for you, brass bed and all.”
“But I should report my men in.”
“Why?”
“Why? Well, I don’t know. No reason, I guess. No, none at
all. They’re all eating or in bed. A good night’s sleep won’t
hurt them.”
“Good night, Son.” Mom kissed his cheek. “It’s good to
have you home.”
“It’s good to _be_ home.”
He left the land of cigar smoke and perfume and books
and gentle light and ascended the stairs, talking, talking
with Edward. Edward pushed a door open, and there was the
yellow brass bed and the old semaphore banners from college and
a very musty raccoon coat which he stroked with muted
affection. “It’s too much,” said the captain. “I’m numb and
I’m tired. Too much has happened today. I feel as if I’d been
out in a pounding rain for forty-eight hours without an
umbrella or a coat. I’m soaked to the skin with emotion.”
Edward slapped wide the snowy linens and flounced the
pillows. He slid the window up and let the night-blooming
jasmine float in. There was moonlight and the sound of distant
dancing and whispering.
“So this is Mars,” said the captain, undressing.
“This is it.” Edward undressed in idle, leisurely moves,
drawing his shirt off over his head, revealing golden shoulders
and the good muscular neck.
The lights were out; they were in bed, side by side, as in
the days how many decades ago? The captain lolled and was
flourished by the scent of jasmine pushing the lace curtains
out upon the dark air of the room. Among the trees, upon a
lawn, someone had cranked up a portable phonograph and now it
was playing softly, “Always.”
The thought of Marilyn came to his mind.
“Is Marilyn here?”
His brother, lying straight out in the moonlight from
the window, waited and then said, “Yes. She’s out of town.
But she’ll be here in the morning.”
The captain shut his eyes. “I want to see Marilyn very
much.”
The room was square and quiet except for their breathing.
“Good night, Ed.”
A pause. “Good night, John.”
He lay peacefully, letting his thoughts float. For the
first time the stress of the day was moved aside; he could
think logically now, It had all been emotion. The bands
playing, the familiar faces. But now . . .
How? he wondered. How was all this made? And why? For
what purpose? Out of the goodness of some divine intervention?
Was God, then, really that thoughtful of his children? How and
why and what for?
He considered the various theories advanced in the first
heat of the afternoon by Hinkston and Lustig. He let all kinds
of new theories drop in lazy pebbles down through his mind,
turning, throwing out dull flashes of light. Mom. Dad. Edward.
Mars. Earth. Mars. Martians.
Who had lived here a thousand years ago on Mars? Martians?
Or had this always been the way it was today?
Martians. He repeated the word idly, inwardly.
He laughed out loud almost. He had the most ridiculous
theory quite suddenly. It gave him a kind of chill. It was
really nothing to consider, of course. Highly improbable.
Silly. Forget it. Ridiculous.
But, he thought, just _suppose_ . . . Just suppose, now,
that there were Martians living on Mars and they saw our ship
coming and saw us inside our ship and hated us, Suppose, now,
just for the hell of it, that they wanted to destroy us,
as invaders, as unwanted ones, and they wanted to do it in a
very clever way, so that we would be taken off guard. Well,
what would the best weapon be that a Martian could use against
Earth Men with atomic weapons?
The answer was interesting. Telepathy, hypnosis, memory,
and imagination.
Suppose all of these houses aren’t real at all, this bed
not real, but only figments of my own imagination, given
substance by telepathy and hypnosis through the Martians,
thought Captain John Black. Suppose these houses are really
some _other_ shape, a Martian shape, but, by playing on my
desires and wants, these Martians have made this seem like my
old home town, my old house, to lull me out of my suspicions.
What better way to fool a man, using his own mother and father
as bait?
And this town, so old, from the year 1926, long before
_any_ of my men were born. From a year when I was six years old
and there _were_ records of Harry Lauder, and Maxfield Parrish
paintings _still_ hanging, and bead curtains, and “Beautiful
Ohio,” and turn-of-the-century architecture. What if the
Martians took the memories of a town _exclusively_ from _my_
mind? They say childhood memories are the clearest. And after
they built the town from my mind, they populated it with
the most-loved people from all the minds of the people on
the rocket!
And suppose those two people in the next room, asleep, are
not my mother and father at all, But two Martians, incredibly
brilliant, with the ability to keep me under this dreaming
hypnosis all of the time.
And that brass band today? What a startlingly wonderful
plan it would be. First, fool Lustig, then Hinkston, then
gather a crowd; and all the men in the rocket, seeing mothers,
aunts, uncles, sweethearts, dead ten, twenty wears ago,
naturally, disregarding orders, rush out and abandon ship. What
more natural? What more unsuspecting? What more simple? A
man doesn’t ask too many questions when his mother is soddenly
brought back to life; he’s much too happy. And here we all
are tonight, in various houses, in various beds, with no
weapons to protect us, and the rocket lies in the moonlight,
empty. And wouldn’t it be horrible and terrifying to discover
that all of this was part of some great clever plan by the
Martians to divide and conquer us, and kill us? Sometime during
the night, perhaps, my brother here on this bed will change
form, melt, shift, and become another thing, a terrible thing,
a Martian. It would be very simple for him just to turn over in
bed and put a knife into my heart. And in all those other
houses down the street, a dozen other brothers or fathers
suddenly melting away and taking knives and doing things to
the unsuspecting, sleeping men of Earth. . . .
His hands were shaking under the covers. His body was
cold. Suddenly it was not a theory. Suddenly he was very
afraid.
He lifted himself in bed and listened. The night was very
quiet The music had stopped. The wind had died. His brother
lay sleeping beside him.
Carefully he lifted the covers, rolled them back. He
slipped from bed and was walking softly across the room when
his brother’s voice said, “Where are you going?”
“What?”
His brother’s voice was quite cold. “I said, where do you
think you’re going?”
“For a drink of water.”
“But you’re not thirsty.”
“Yes, yes, I am.”
“No, you’re not.”
Captain John Black broke and ran across the room. He
screamed. He screamed twice.
He never reached the door.
In the morning the brass band played a mournful dirge.
From every house in the street came little solemn processions
bearing long boxes, and along the sun-filled street, weeping,
came the grandmas and mothers and sisters and brothers and
uncles and fathers, walking to the churchyard, where there were
new holes freshly dug and new tombstones installed. Sixteen
holes in all, and sixteen tombstones.
The mayor made a little sad speech, his face sometimes
looking like the mayor, sometimes looking like something else.
Mother and Father Black were there, with Brother Edward,
and they cried, their faces melting now from a familiar face
into something else.
Grandpa and Grandma Lustig were there, weeping, their
faces shifting like wax, shimmering as all things shimmer on a
hot day.
The coffins were lowered. Someone murmured about “the
unexpected and sudden deaths of sixteen fine men during the
night–”
Earth pounded down on the coffin lids.
The brass band, playing “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean,”
marched and slammed back into town, and everyone took the day
off.
The End
Conclusion
And this is only the beginning.
Who knows what greatness, and strange mysteries lie in the future ahead of you?
Sometimes, it just seems like the United States is just one big science-fiction movie. Seriously it does. Why? Well, there are various “news” articles popping up here, and then there, that all seem to point to a dystopic future; one that resembles a horrific science fiction film.
I argue that there are two vectors that are intersecting right now. One [1] is that of a fear-based narrative; be afraid, be very afraid. And the other [2] is one of general collapse while everyone is acting crazy and running around in crazy insanity.
These two vectors create a very horrific narrative, and it is one that is now commonplace within the United States.
Here we review some of these events. And discuss what they could mean and look at them as an impartial observer witnessing a geographic area going down the tubes in insanity.
We start with…
Bioweapon tainted monkeys escape into the population…
So many movies had this theme. Remember that that was the “cover story” for “American Ultra”, and the theme for numerous science fiction movies. Such as Outbreak (1995).
“American Ultra”
Woman claims she is sick after carrying hissing monkey that escaped truck in Pennsylvania crash. The woman’s pinkeye was so bad that she checked herself into an emergency room.
Note: Biological weapon experimental monkeys escape? Check the earlier local news from Pennsylvania to know how they activate their military and police forces to blanket search for the 4 escape monkeys, and alerted the local residents to report to the authorities if they come by any monkey and not to get close to the monkeys.
The evil American country is very scary, and a constant threat to the survival of humanity and all living thing on the planet.
Remember that right before the release of the Coronavirus in the Wuhan games, that an “event” occurred where an agency closed down Fort Detrick. Of course, agencies do not have the power to close American miltiary facilities and bases. It was closed for other reasons, not for the stated reasons.
Only ONE person can close down a military base. That’s the President of the United States.
Remember that right before the release of the Coronavirus in the Wuhan games…an odd closure of the Major Bioweapons facility by the EPA.
Bioweapon monkeys, eh?
Yeah. Sure.
Right before XXXXX, an odd escaped monkey started to terrorize America.
Bioweapon monkeys eh?
The United States and rules…
Obviously the “news” is full of such bullshit, partial truths and distortions and no one knows what is really going on. most Americans are completely confused by the onslaught of lies, and many beleive them.
And that makes it easy for the USA to do what it wants.
Thus, it is not unusual for the USA to make the rules as they see fit.
[A] Laws, and rules domestically no longer have any validity, and [B] international treaties are used when it provides advantage, and discarded when they do not.
Combined, [A] and [B] clearly show a nation in chaos where there are no rules, no structures, and very little in the way of law.
As I see it, the United States is like this big thrashing monster, and it is trying desperately to cling to power and relevance. But it is failing at every level, and that is why it is engaged in World War III right now. The opening salvos hit this month, and they are concerning…
Let’s look at some of the “news” that can be found in the American, Britsh and Australian “news” media…
Supermarket tabloids
Of couse, it’s just bullshit, and made up stories. However, these things sell, and that means that there ARE people who read them. I remeber when I lived in Kokomo, Indiana, USA that my next door neighbor (a girl named Misty, a stripper by the way) would read these things weekly and believed every word written in them…
Ah.
Then we have just day to day news.
I have no doubt that this actually occurred, but think about it. Look at this chick, and note that he has convinced the police detective to investigate fifteen (15!) men of raping her.
Woman Who Falsely Accused 15 Men Of Rape Given 10 Year Sentence
A woman from West London is to be jailed for a decade for falsely accusing over a dozen men of sexually assaulting her. 27-year-old Jemma Beale, who hails from Bedfont, west London, was handed a lengthy prison sentence for perverting the course of justice and perjuring innocent men in 2017, one of whom was jailed for two years.
Now, Beale has challenged her sentence throughout the latest appeal process, in a bid to clear her name. However, the prosecution presented evidence that Beale texted her then-girlfriend, saying that she was “glorying in his discomfort” when giving false evidence against one of her victims.
Beale made her first complaint on the morning of 26 November 2010, telling police that she’d been sexually assaulted by Mahad Cassim the previous night. Cassim was sentenced to seven years in prison for rape in 2012.
According to her, all men cannot wait to rape her.
Beale had been supported by the authorities throughout her case as a victim of sexual violence, whose account was to be believed. Professionals will have been on hand to give her support, in addition to a police victim-liaison officer.
She received compensation from the taxpayer amounting to £11,000. Meanwhile, the innocent man whom she had falsely accused was rotting in a prison cell, his reputation destroyed and his life effectively over. Before his conviction was quashed, he had already served over two years of his seven-year sentence.
Beale later told police she had been the victim of two other sexual assaults that year, and allegedly fabricated similar allegations against six other men in 2013.
Commenting on the case, Lady Justice Hallett, the judge presiding over the appeal, stated:
“This case went far further then myths and stereotypes about a complainant’s behaviour. The appellant was accused of being a serial liar who fabricated accounts mostly of a sexual nature. In the light of the evidence called even if the guidance was given it would not have assisted the appellant.”
She added:
“The system of justice has suffered considerable harm – considerable resources have been spent investigating and prosecuting crimes which never happened. There has been no indication of remorse on the appellant’s part.”
…
Then we have this article. Knowing what I know of certain individuals that I have met in prison, this seems to be much more common than one woud think…
But… why?
There must also be betting, and gambling, and probably other vices as well. Don’t you know.
But you do know that maybe it’s how American children are being raised today. Consider this next article…
And when the children grow up, and they discover alcohol, drugs and influence on social media, they start to act really strange.
Like this fellow.
Why?
Well, you need to understand that the United States is fragmented, and balkenized. As this next article illustrates…
Tennessee Pastor Who Repeatedly Raped 14-Year-Old Daughter Gets Lenient Sentence Because He Was A Good Christian
A former pastor who repeatedly raped his adopted teenage daughter has been given an effective 12 year prison sentence.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports prosecutors sought the maximum term of 72 years behind bars. The judge on the case, Steve Sword, took Richards work as a pastor, the support he still receives and his role key role in leading a Bible study at the prison as mitigating factors.
During his trial in February, 41-year-old David Lynn Richards Jr. had taken the stand in his own defense and asserted his innocence.
He claimed that the victim, Amber Richards, was a defiant teenager who made the allegations of sexual abuse against him after he tried to impose stricter rules on his children.
The victim was 16 when she reported the abuse, saying it began two years earlier.
She told authorities where they could find DNA evidence at her home and said Richards had texted her about taking their relationship “to the next level.” A
uthorities said they found her mattress stripped bare and his phone factory reset, but they were able to recover Forensic evidence showing traces of Richards’ semen on his daughter’s bed frame
Amber, who has chosen to identify herself and speak out after Richards was found guilty, delivered a powerful impact statement before Richards’ sentencing on Thursday.
“I wanted to throw my body away. Not a day goes by that I don’t, in some way, think of what he did to me. … I firmly believe if given the opportunity, he would victimize another young girl.”
Despite the overwhelming evidence, many in the community refused to believe that Pastor Richards was a rapist.
Over 30 parishioners from the church came to court to show support not for the victim, but for the rapist.
Pastor David Thompson, who shared ministry duties with Pastor Richards at My Father’s House Church of God in Lenoir City, said:
I find it impossible for me to believe he’s guilty of this. His business needs him. His family needs him. Our church needs him.
Despite being found guilty, Richards Jr continued to maintain his innocence while asking the judge for leniency in the sentence.
I stand before you convicted of crimes I did not commit. … I’m not sure why I’m here. … but I assume it’s for His purpose.
Welcome to America.
You know Hollywood, and alcohol dosen’t always mix. ..
And things are even weirder in Great Britian…
But I have to tell you all that things are off-the-wall in certain parts of the United States. Consider the American “Bible Belt”.
Here’s a map of the “Bible Belt”.
Bible Belt.
And this is what goes on there as everyday fodder…
Christian TV Host: Plant-Based Burgers Are A Satanic Plot To Create A “Race of Soulless Creatures”
Rick Wiles warned on his “TruNews” program that the rise of companies that make plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy products, is part of a satanic plot to alter human DNA so that people can no longer worship God.
Appearing on his program earlier this week, Wiles said:
When you go to your favorite fast food restaurant, you are going to be eating a fake hamburger. You’re going to go to the grocery store and buy a pound of fake hamburger or a fake steak, and you won’t know that it was grown in some big corporation’s laboratory. This is the nightmare world that they are taking us into. They’re changing God’s creation. Why? Because they want to be God.
Wiles continued:
God is an environmentalist. He takes this very seriously. He created this planet, he created the universe and he’s watching these Luciferians destroy this planet, destroy the animal kingdom, destroy the plant kingdom, change human DNA. Why? They want to change human DNA so that you can’t be born again. That’s where they’re going with this, to change the DNA of humans so it will be impossible for a human to be born again. They want to create a race of soulless creatures on this planet.
…
Yuppr.
Things are awfully strange in the ‘States right now.
No more fun in the sun for Jake.
…
I guess sex is a great motivator.
Consider this screen shot…
I mean, if you are hungry… well…
America is insane, and it is exploding in all sorts of strangeness.
Colorado University Warns Students Not to Say ‘America’, ‘American’ Because It’s Not Inclusive
Colorado State University has included the words “American” and “America” on its list of language to avoid because they are not inclusive.
The school’s Inclusive Communications Task Force compiled a list of words in its Inclusive Language Guide that serve to help those on campus foster “inclusion, respect, and social justice.”
The guide states that it is not about being politically correct but instead is there to help “communicators practice inclusive language” and make everyone on campus “feel welcomed, respected, and valued.”
CSU lists both “American” and “America” as non-inclusive words “to avoid,” due to the fact that America encompasses more than just the U.S.
“The Americas encompass a lot more than the United States,” the guide states. “There is South America, Central America, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean just to name a few of 42 countries in total.”
By referring to the U.S. as America, the guide claims that one “erases other cultures and depicts the United States as the dominant American country.” The school suggests using “U.S. citizen” or “person from the U.S.” as substitutes.
The guide advises students to use the words “U.S. citizen” or “person from the U.S.” instead of “American.”
Among other words and phrases on the list are:
The words “male” and “female” (because this “refers to biological sex and not gender,” and “we very rarely need to identify or know a person’s biological sex and more often are referring to gender”), “cake walk” (because it apparently has origins in “the racism of 19th century minstrel shows”), “freshman” (because it “excludes women and non-binary gender identities”), “Hispanic” (“because of its origins in colonialization and the implication that to be Hispanic or Latinx/Latine/Latino, one needs to be Spanish-speaking”), “hold down the fort” (because “the U.S. the historical connotation refers to guarding against Native American ‘intruders’ and feeds into the stereotype of ‘savages’”), “no can do” (because it was “originally a way to mock Chinese people”), “peanut gallery” (because it “names a section in theaters, usually the cheapest and worst, where many Black people sat during the era of Vaudeville”), “straight” (because it “implies that anyone LGBT is ‘crooked’ or not normal”), “food coma” (because it “directly alludes to the stereotype of laziness associated with African-Americans”), and “war” or “battle,” when used any way other than to describe a literal war or battle (because “they evoke very real tragedy that can be problematic for survivors of war or Veterans”).(National Review)
The guide does note, however, that the recommendations are not official policy.
…
What some people will do for a lawn tool.
And what some people will do for fun…
But, you know…
This kind of disconnect from rules, laws and tradition occur world-wide. It’s just that the United States is really very sick.
Consider the middle east…
Saudi Millionaire Who Said He Accidentally “Tripped and Penetrated” Teenage Girl Cleared of Rape
Ehsan Abdulaziz, a Saudi millionaire property developer, was cleared of rape charges in London after he claimed that he had tripped and fallen on an 18-year-old girl who was sleeping at his apartment after partying with him, penetrating her by accident.
The Saudi property developer said he had already had sex with the young woman’s 24-year-old friend and it was possible his penis may have been poking out of his underwear when he tripped
The Mirror reported the group had met at an exclusive West End club last year where he entertained them before offering them a lift home.
The 18-year-old claimed that after a number of drinks at Abdulaziz’s north London home, she went to sleep on the couch.
She said she woke up to find him on top of her, forcing himself on her.
“She woke up with the defendant kissing her and his penis in her vagina,” prosecutor Jonathan Davies told the Southwark Crown Court.
“She said: ‘What are you doing?’ and he said ‘It’s fine,’ indicating that her friend was asleep.
“She got up to find her friend, tried to wake her but couldn’t, she then tried to get out of the flat as quickly as she could.”
Abdulaziz said he had accidentally fallen on the teenager and that she tried to seduce him, and that was how his DNA got onto her vagina.
“I’m fragile, I fell down but nothing ever happened, between me and this girl nothing ever happened,” he said.
He also told the court it was possible he had semen on his hands after having sex with the young woman’s friend.
The jury acquitted Abdulaziz after just 30 minutes of deliberations.
They believed his excuse. He was obviouly being truthful as he was man and a “pillar of the community”.
…
Tripped.
And of course, there’s all sorts of lies on the Western “news” too.
Like this one about China.
Hey, do you see their faces? Do you see their clothing? How can you tell where this picture was taken?
Well. Look at the pavement. That’s asphalt.
It’s against the law to pave large public areas in China, only certain roads can be paved with asphalt. Only bike lanes maybe paved (and on special permission) cerain senic roads. But never large public areas. They are either cement, if in the rural areas, or dressed stone, which is the norm. This pavement is NOT of dressed stone.
My guess is that someone staged this photo in the UK or USA and wrote a bullshit story around it. It’s pretty common for American “news” these days.
Indeed.
It’s awfully strange in America these days.
Awfully strange.
And it’s not just that.
It’s everything.
Dodgeball Is “An Unethical Tool Of Oppression” And Should Be Banned, Say Researchers
Researchers in Canada say that dodgeball is nothing more than legalized bullying.
When you’re setting up the environment for students to learn, and you introduce the idea that it’s okay to slam the ball at whomever you like, even if it’s with a soft ball, the intention is there,’ Joy Butler, a professor who studies pedagogy and curriculum development said to the Washington Post.
‘When students think it’s okay because they’re being told it’s okay to do that, what do they learn? People say dodgeball is being used as an outlet for aggression or catharsis. I suspect that this is where they’re learning that.
‘Phys-ed should be an arena where teachers are helping students control their aggression and move on instead of expressing themselves through anger.’
Researchers interviewed middle-school students about their physical education classes and say the overwhelming feeling was that students hated dodgeball.
The team’s findings are to be presented at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences this week in Vancouver and will argue that the playground favorite actually ‘reinforces the five faces of oppression’ identified as exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence by political theorist Iris Marion Young.
‘I think of the little girl who is running to the back to avoid being targeted,’
Professor Butler said.
‘What is she learning in that class? Avoidance?’
Researchers also noted that they had observed the more athletic, authoritative students had created their own rules and purposely stacked the teams. This, naturally made it more difficult for the less athletic or popular to compete.
‘The message is that it’s okay to hurt or dehumanize the ‘other,’
Butler said.
‘The competition is about annihilating one’s opponent, and the true definition of competition is between two evenly matched teams. Well, kids stack their teams, and they really enjoy beating the other team. What’s the enjoyment of that?’“Despite the fact that many physical educators understand their vital role in helping students develop robust, equal, productive relationships and critical awareness, their practices on the ground do not always reflect this agenda,”
they write.
“We suggest that this tension becomes sharply visible in the common practice of allowing students to play dodgeball.
They ultimately recommended that Physical Education curriculum’s focus more on health, wellness and fitness rather than just sports.
…
Next up is Brazil. I wonder how many followers he had…
Holy milk, eh?
I wonder if he told them that those that drank the “fresh milk” would get special privileges. Perhaps if they bent over, and prayed really hard…
Meanwhile in Utah…
Yuppur.
Strange things in the United States these days.
And in Africa…
Say what?
And again, inside the United States…
From the low-lives, to the high brow… all of the United States has gone insane.
Insane.
Colorado State University: Saying ‘Long Time, No See,’ ‘You Guys,’ ‘Freshman’ is Offensive
Students at Colorado State University (CSU), apparently, should no longer say “long time, no see,” “you guys” or “freshman,” because those terms are not considered “inclusive language.”
That’s according to a student, Katrina Leibee, who writes for the campus paper, The Rocky Mountain Collegian. Leibee met with Zahra Al-Saloom, director of diversity and inclusion at CSU, who showed her an entire packet of terms and phrases considered contrary to the university’s mission of fostering inclusion.
“One of these phrases was ‘long time, no see,’ which is viewed as derogatory towards those of Asian descent,” wrote Leibee.
The packet says the phrase originally mocked “Native Americans or Chinese pidgin English” without providing an ounce of historical context. It suggests saying the flaccid, unmeasured, structureless, “I haven’t seen you in a while” in the phrase’s place.
“We were told that the popular term ‘you guys’ was not inclusive of all genders, and we should instead replace it with ‘y’all,’” she wrote. “We were told to use the term ‘first-year’ instead of ‘freshman,’ because ‘freshman’ is not inclusive of all genders.”
“A countless amount of words and phrases have been marked with a big, red X and defined as non-inclusive,” she continued. “It has gotten to the point where students should carry around a dictionary of words they cannot say.”
When the CSU student confronted the campus language commissars about the fact that nowhere in the country are phrases like “long time, no see” being regulated, she was given empty platitudes about making the world a better place where she stands.
Even if the world isn’t good, you should be good,” one superior told her. “CSU abides by the principles of community, and we want to make it an inclusive space.”
And no one is immune.
Such as this “Chinese man”…
And it affects everyone.
Did you know that Gordon Ramsay had a dwarf porn double? And that he died in a “Badger Den”? And that they had Badger Dens in Wales?
I’ll tell youse guys it’s an awfully strange world we are living in.
Next up should be a “Florida man” article. But no. Sorry.
It’s “Oregon Man”.
High on life, I’ll bet.
And some things just make me cringe.
And if you think that things just cannot get worse, well then you have this…
Let’s see.
Oh, yeah. Here’s a “Florida man”…
Florida Man Arrested For Attempting To “Barbecue” Child Molesters
Osceola County police officers arrested a Florida man after it was discovered that he attempted to “barbecue all the child molesters on fire and kill them.” Jorge Porto-Sierra, 50, confessed to investigators that he had attempted to kill several people who were at a motel in Kissimmee.
Witnesses say the suspect was carrying a cigarette and shouting threats such as “I’m going to kill you, child molester,” during the incident at the motel. He allegedly poured gas on several doors, broke a window to pour gas into a room. In addition, Porto-Sierra allegedly attacked two other individuals inside a car in the hotel parking lot, first by pouring gasoline into the car through an open window. When the driver attempted to flee, Porto-Sierra got into his black Ford Focus and started ramming their car.
Deputies then arrived on the scene, where they say Porto-Sierra surrendered right away. Waiving his Miranda rights, Porto-Sierra confessed and told the authorities, “they raped kids, they are child molesters that all live here and deserve to die.”
Sex offenders in Florida are required to publicly register their home address with the Sexual Offender and Predator System. That system shows more than 20 offenders are using the Friendly Village Inn & Motel as their home address.
When deputies asked why he didn’t flicker his lit cigarette at the gasoline he had poured, the old man simply said, “You got here too soon.”
…
But at least people are starting to trust the police more.
…
What’s next?
I mean it’s all getting pretty bad.
Maybe cats and dogs will start fighting, and mass hysteria will hit new York (a paraphrased quote from “Ghostbusters”.)
Some final thoughts
Question to the reader. Sure these are interesting, and curious “news” items. But do they really improve your life? Are you better informed in the world directly around you and that with you interact with? Or, as I allude to, it is all puzzle pieces thrown on the floor in disarray…
Some are just made up lies. Like the China nonsense.
Some are news items; regional, small-time strangeness that takes place far away in areas that you have no idea about, haven’t visited, and know nothing of the culture there.
Some are government related, and of course, anything out of the Untied States govenrment is scheduled, preplanned and presented as “leaked” info to give it legitimity.
Some are stores of fraudsters, crooks, and criminals who use a new angle or technique to fleece others for money, or sex.
So I must ask again. Is your life better for reading about this stuff? Did you really learn somehting that you can apply to your life right now?
I argue that it just wasted your time.
Like sitting in a circus tent and watching clowns juggle bowling pins. A curious waste of time. Novel, perhaps, but does not improve your lfie.
So what things can you do to improve your life, eh?
Well, for starters. Do what you love to do. Seriously. I am not kidding. Do what you like to do.
Just do it and let the rest of the world scream! video 3MB
Identify who your friends are. Sure you can and should have all sorts of friends. But you need to identify which ones are REAL, the REAL DEAL friends, video 3MB
Get started right now. Do little things. Like Make Your Bed.
Great video. Listen to the great words of wisdom from a Navy Seal. video 7MB
If you start being nice and kind, irregardless to what others think, and act better and smile more, you will be the Rufus.
And if you are the Rufus you will find that your world-line template gets easier to endure. You will find that things get easier becuase instead of your mind filled with the daily garbage from the “news” you will have good things, and tangible things in yoru life… generated by the good thoughts of all those around you.
American and Western society is predicated in a civilian population of spectators. Those that are being told how great they are for doing nothing more than sitting into little grey cubicle boxes and giving 50% of everything that they make to the government.
That is not living.
But you can change all that.
Maybe not the entire society, but you can change your little part of it. Perform your affirmation campaigns. Mesure your fate forecast. Perfrom centering exercises though Hemi-sync, and be the Rufus. Your life will change dramatically.
Not overnight.
Certainly years of programming and fear-induced habits will not disappear in a week or so, but if you keep up with the exercises and do the best with what you have, it WILL change.
I promise you that.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my “Growth as a Person” Index here…
One of the often mentioned narratives regarding China can be found on the Alt-Right and Hard-Right websites in America. It’s the narrative that China builds these huge enormous “ghost cities”. That China builds these huge concrete cities that no one lives in, and that this is just another example about how “out of touch” China is with it’s people.
Well, of course, it’s a big bunch of misdirection, misunderstandings, lies, and intentional fabrications.
Yet, what is actually going on is far more interesting.
And if you study it, you see just how healthy the government of China is, and how proactive it is in caring for the Chinese people.
In this article we are going to take a look at one of these “ghost cities” and see what is actually going on. No. It’s not about how “out of touch” the Chinese government is, but rather how forward thinking it is. People in the West simply cannot imagine what is going on. This is simply because the size, the scope, the forward planning, and the belief that if everyone is “lifted up”, then everyone prospers.
It’s unheard of in the greedy West.
Here’s the video.
And NO, it’s not me. This is a video blogger that travels the world and speaks better Chinese than I do. He has a vblog called JaYoeNation. He’s pretty good. LOL.
Take a spell and let it download. If it is taking too much time, you can click on THIS LINK and down load a zipped-file and watch the video directly. It’s pretty good. Please enjoy.
You have got to see the pictures and this video…
Do you want more?
I have more posts along these lines in my China vs. USA Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
I am sorry that I have been a little slow in releasing these particular kinds of articles, but you know it isn’t everyday where you are located in the middle of ground-zero for World War III. So I’ve been a little side-tracked, don’t you know.
Anyways…
Anyways, as far as this particular MAJestic post is concerned, please keep in mind the limitations that I have regarding the dissemination of information.
While I just cannot divulge any secrets, some of what I CAN discharge has to do with things that are not of a technical interest. Such as history, culture, society, and "the bigger picture".
My role (as was Sebastian's) enabled us some very exclusive access to "understandings".
Nothing that was really of a functional interest to MAJestic specifically. Just general odds and ends and curiosities. And one of these "tidbits" is how our planet in our solar system became populated with life.
This kind of information is not “secret”, “confidential” or “restricted”. It is considered to be an unimportant curiosity that does not matter in the grand scheme of things.
And this is the subject for today. It is a little history lesson.
We are going to talk about what the earth was like when the first organisms started to grow upon the earth. As well as the kinds of attention that this evolutionary process generated in the civilizations that were present at the time (elsewhere in the galaxy).
Ah. You all know that I have a particular interest in history, don’t you?
What I am going to present here is a mix of [1] what I have been exposed to, and I place it all [2] in context to what our present scientists (“experts”) believe. Combined, the two points of view can give the interested reader some real valuable insight into this rarer bit of obscure knowledge about the earth’s history. I also mention [3] some elements of life within the physical that many humans are unaware of, perhaps being alien to the Newtonian understanding of physics.
We are going to talk about about the Ediacaran Period.
This was a long, long, LONG time ago. Around 630 million years ago. Just about the time when the solar system was starting to become interesting to other species within our galaxy.
In comparison, the human species is only around 400,000 years old, and of that most of the time we were all very primitive. In fact the written history is only around 5,000 years old. We are very youthful. Here we talk about the time long before dinosaurs, flies, insects, fishes and trees. We are talking about the time when there wasn't a moon.
That is correct. 630,000,000 years ago the Earth had no moon.
I cover this subject elsewhere.
The earliest extraterrestrial humanoid (Physically-animated bipedal entities that utilize technology to visit the Earth) visitation known (to me personally) to our solar system occurred during the Ediacaran period (630 million years ago).
FYI: This is not “official” MAJestic knowledge. (This information is tangential to our roles and are personal observations that were debriefed, but not relative to our mission parameters. ) In general it is considered to be extemporaneous, non-mission critical information.
The base age of approximately 635 million years ago is based on the U-Pb (uranium-lead) isochron dating method.
Here, strata from Namibia and China was dated using this method.
There is a more or less active debate on the dating methodology regarding this time period. In any event it is far above my head and rather esoteric for my tastes.
The dating method I place here is approximate and based upon our limited understanding of the Earth at this time.
This was a long, long, very long time ago. The reader must understand that fact. Typically when humans think of the past, we tend to think in terms of thousands of years. Officially, civilization is supposed to be less than 10,000 years old.
Civilization, in this meaning, loosely refers to the creation of stable and moderate sized agrarian communities which may or may not have a written language.
But, this particular period of time is far, far older than that.
In fact, it is not 100x older. It is not 1000x older. It is 63,000 times older than what we consider to be the start of bipedal human civilization. It is so long ago as to be incomprehensible.
Please kindly refer to my notes (within the MAJestic Index) and my thoughts on the human ability to understand large swaths of time.
During this time, there were no evolved humanoids or proto-humans on the planet. The life on the earth was quite primitive.
Therefore, any and all the visitations were made by extraterrestrials. These creatures came and visited the earth and left. No one stayed for long. I would consider these visits and excursions to be survey expeditions made by long-extinct space-faring extraterrestrial species.
They had many forms.
The dominant physical form (by a “long shot”) that we, as humans, would recognize was the early variations of bipedal proto-humanoid extraterrestrials.
During this huge swath of time, the Earth was visited at various times by numerous species.
This period of time lasted for 94 million years, and began in the distant past around 630 million years ago. A lot of things can happen in 94 million years.
Again, the reader is reminded that this particular period of time contains 94 million years. That is an amazingly long expanse of time.
Indeed space-faring species developed, thrived and evolved past their physical forms many times during this period.
Obviously, this implies that there were space-faring, extraterrestrial races at this distant point in time so long ago. (None of which originated on the earth. They only visited it.)
During this period some would visit our solar system for various purposes and they would stay for varying lengths of time. All of these visitation(s) were short lived affairs.
Any settlements were temporary and used for scientific study and other short duration activities.
The visits were, of course, by extraterrestrial species of various points of origin, as there was absolutely just the very beginnings of higher order life on the world at this time.
Our solar system
The reader must understand that at this time the Earth was a bare and desolate place. The land was barren rock, and mountains. Sure there was mater and ice on the land masses, and perhaps microbes. But no significant life on the land surfaces. The only life was in the seas.
Our solar system was mostly free of the huge dust disks and debris field of the earlier 3 billion years.
Our star had matured during that time and became much more stable.
But stability is a relative thing; the earth was no longer entirely molten. Indeed, the surface of the earth was cooling and a thick gaseous envelope of various dusty gasses surrounded it.
Outside the Earth, the other rocky planets were also beginning to cool down and life was just beginning to form in the most unlikely of places. This included the smoggy Mars, and Venus, as well as numerous moons of Jupiter (because Jupiter was much closer to the Sun then as it is today).
At this point in time, the earth was just beginning to stabilize enough to maintain ambulatory life.
Previous to this time, it was a hot and desolate place (prior to the Sturtian period around 710 Ma).
Then it began to cool down.
During the early Neoproterozoic (around 850 Ma to 740 Ma) it cooled down sufficiently for early life in the earliest forms to evolve.
There was a pause or “burp” in evolution during the Sturtian glaciation around 710 to 735 Ma, and then a resumed period of growth during the Cryogenian period.
This again was put on hold during the Marinoan glaciation that finally ended around 635 Ma.
It was the Ediacaran period at around the end of the Marinoan glaciation where things started to evolve into life that we understand it to be; significant.
Around the Vendian period (approximately 570 Ma), the first classes and orders of identifiable creatures became recognizable in the fossil records.
Mars, and Venus looked quite different than they do now. The atmospheres were different. The pressures and temperatures were different. Their orbits, and orbitalinclinationtotheecliptic were different as well.
The earth had no moon, and our orbital inclination was different.
I do not know if there was another planet in orbit around the sun that eventually formed the asteroid belt. My personal belief that there wasn’t a planet, and what we see as asteroids are but the remnants of the solar system “frost zone”. Not of a planet that broke up sometime int he distant past.
Jupiter was larger. It was hotter, and it was closer to the sun than it is now.
A number of it’s moons had atmospheres, and there was actually some (short lived) periods of liquid water on key moons.
All the other gas giants, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus also migrated outwards, but their physical changes were not as radical as for Jupiter.
Our Planet
Our earth was indeed a desolate place; however it was not without its charms.
It was marginally habitable, but showed great promise to those races with a long term view point.
Our planet consisted of mostly exposed and harsh rocks and water in a harsh nearly lifeless world. It was, of course, shrouded in toxic gasses under high temperature and pressure. But even in this environment, life spawned. During this time on the Earth we saw the continued emergence of simple organisms and simple creatures.
This time is considered the Neo-proterozoic era.
While nothing really existed on land, most life lived in the (emerging) waters of the earth and along the rocky shorelines. Here is where we have found the first good fossils of the first multi-celled animals on the Earth.
These (over the last few hundred years) were discovered and obtained, and that is how we now know that this was a period of the first native biological life on the earth.
Atmosphere
The world (at that time) was not only bare (consisting of broken rocky surfaces and coarse sand and gravels), but the atmosphere was pretty rank.
While there was an oxygen atmosphere, it was then only 40% of what consider normal today.
Instead the climate was dominated by (poisonous to humans) carbon dioxide and at a level fully sixteen times that of today. It was a time of thunderous storms, damp and dank weather and bleak, harsh rocky surroundings.
Yet, with all that being true, the world was still (considered) marginally habitable for bipedal humanoids. Bipedal humanoids would of needed oxygen masks, protective clothing, and solid reliable shoes to walk about on the planet.
Of course there was be dust and dirt, but it tended to have a granular appearance. The air, while rank, was breathable with filters and oxygen supplements.
The atmospheric pressure was tolerable but outside of what was considered normal for conventional humans.
The temperature varied by location, but for the most part was in the range considered to be marginally acceptable.
There was liquid water (over a large section of the globe); stable land forms, and a total lack of competing contentious native life forms. The earth at that time was a potential oasis that would be viewed as having great future promise by any extraterrestrial who would visit it.
Those species who visited it left their marks in various ways. Some of which eventually spawned higher order organisms unintentionally through careless behavior.
Which makes you wonder... "exactly what kinds of careless behaviors were involved?"
Native Life
It was during this time that the (so called) Ediacaran biota flourished.
Ediacaran biota.
The Ediacaran biota are the somewhat puzzling fauna of the Ediacaran period.
This geological period was from 635–542 million years ago (mya), but the fossil biota was only from 575–542 mya.
This was after a series of ice ages and just before the Cambrian period.
The biota consists of soft-bodied multicellular organisms, probably animals, which left trace fossils in rocks of Ediacaran age.
The biota is quite unusual, and there is no sign of it in the preceding Marinoan glaciation.
The biota appears to suffer a fairly severe extinction event at the boundary with the Cambrian.
Some of the biota may have survived into the early Cambrian.
Then the world consisted of very large and shallow seas.
These shallow seas permitted the growth of various simple organisms.
Simple trace fossils of possible worm-like creatures; known as the Trichophycus became common, as well as the very first sponges and trilobitomorphs (the early ancestors of trilobites).
The creatures of the earth at this time were simple in design and structure.
Throughout the history of the Earth from Cambrian to the present day, soft-bodied creatures are notorious for dying without a trace. The lack of tough structures leave them exposed to waves, winds, and scavengers, causing many of them to completely dissolve after death.
They were the earliest naturally evolving creatures of the earth and consisted of very simple proto-fungi and very simple proto-creatures.
At this time there were no insects, birds, or even flowers. The earth was a land of proto-fungi and small simple creatures.
The reader should consider the land at this time to be rather bare and rocky, with the earliest fungi and simple creatures clustering around the shorelines.
The most significant life form; non-ambulatory, was the various Stromatolite colonies that persisted throughout the planet in the shallow seas. These colonies looked like hard rounded sponge rocks and boulders.
Stromatolite colonies
These colonies grew close to the land and grew in great numbers due to the favorability of the local climate at that time. Some grew to enormous size. Truly, some were so enormous in size that they resembled low submerged islands.
The reader should consider this time to a period of all sorts of boneless ambulatory aquatic creatures such as jellyfish, and sea slugs.
Indeed, may I indulge in a little creative fantasy and suggest that the sea slugs became quite diverse and colorful. Imagine a world inhabited by such creatures. Creatures such as;
Hypselodoris kanga
Acanthodoris pylosa
Cyerce nigricans
Elysia crispata(’Lettuce sea slug’)
Flabellina iodinea
Costasiella kuroshimae(’Sea sheep’)
Glaucus atlanticus(’Blue angel’)
Phyllodesmium poindimiei
Dirona albolineata
Hexabranchus sanguineus(’Spanish dancer’)
I suggest the reader to look up these wondrous creatures and watch a video or GIF of their behavior. For indeed creatures similar to the aforementioned dominated the globe at that time.
Trilobite anatomy.
It was during this period that proto-trilobites came into existence.
We have scant knowledge of these creatures because they were soft shelled, and thus unable to be fossilized.
We can, however, surmise that they appeared similar to that of their later offspring; the trilobites, only with a far simpler biology and soft shell and cellular makeup.
Trilobites were among the early arthropods, a phylum of hard-shelled creatures with multiple body segments and jointed legs (although the legs, antennae and other finer structures of trilobites only rarely are preserved).
They constitute an extinct class of arthropods, the Trilobita, made up of ten orders, over 150 families, about 5,000 genera, and over 20,000 described species.
New species of trilobites are unearthed and described every year.
This makes trilobites the single most diverse class of extinct organisms, and within the generalized body plan of trilobites there was a great deal of diversity of size and form.
The smallest known trilobite species is under a millimeter long, while the largest include species from 30 to over 70 cm in length (roughly a foot to over two feet long!).
With such a diversity of species and sizes, speculations on the ecology of trilobites includes planktonic, swimming, and crawling forms, and we can presume they filled a varied set of trophic (feeding) niches, although perhaps mostly as detritivores, predators, or scavengers.
Consider where they lived…
Ediacara (formerly Vendian) biota.
The Ediacara (formerly Vendian) biota are ancient life-forms of the Ediacaran Period, which represent the earliest known complex multicellular organisms.
They appeared soon after the Earth thawed from the Cryogenian period’s extensive glaciers, and largely disappeared soon before the rapid appearance of biodiversity known as the Cambrian explosion.
This period saw the first appearance in the fossil record of the basic patterns and body-plans that would go on to form the basis of modern animals.
Little of the diversity of the Ediacara biota would be incorporated in this new scheme, with a distinct Cambrian biota arising and usurping the organisms that dominated the Ediacaran fossil record.
What was life like 560 million years ago?
Bacteria and green algae were common in the seas, as were the enigmatic acritarchs, planktonic single-celled algae of uncertain affinity.
But the Ediacaran also marks the first appearance of a group of large fossils collectively known as the "Ediacara biota."
The question of what these fossils are is still not settled to everyone's satisfaction; at various times they have been considered algae, lichens, giant protozoans, or even a separate kingdom of life unrelated to anything living today.
Some of these fossils are simple blobs that are hard to interpret and could represent almost anything.
Some are most like cnidarians, worms, or soft-bodied relatives of the arthropods.
Others are less easy to interpret and may belong to extinct phyla.
But besides the fossils of soft bodies, Ediacaran rocks contain trace fossils, probably made by wormlike animals slithering over mud.
The Ediacaran rocks thus give us a good look at the first animals to live on Earth.
Of course, there weren’t any naturally evolved humanoids at this time. Nor were there any animals, rodents, flies or insects.
For the most part, any life that was on the earth existed solely within (or near) the water.
It was an aquatic world.
For all practical purposes, the Earth consisted of land masses consisting of bare rocks, sand, dank clouds and waters of various salinity (some areas were alkaline, while others were rich in various salts).
Kimberella resembled a slug and has often been found near marks that resemble the feeding traces of more modern slugs and snails. Despite its seemingly simple body plan, Kimberella differed enough from the rest of the organisms living alongside it. This indicates that around 555 million years ago, 14 million years before the beginning of the Cambrian, life had started to evolve into various shapes and lifestyles.
Yet, even though there weren’t any significant large mammals around, we did see other kinds of life. Here we saw an emergence of the first native life forms.
Jellyfish World
This period is marked, or the ultimate creation of, a sudden climatic change at the end of the Marinoan ice age.
Here, the temperature started to warm up and huge swaths of glaciers and frozen areas disappeared, and large pools of warm water and regions of comparative stability appeared.
While we have the earliest fossils on record from this geological time period, it is believed that many soft skinned creatures roamed the seas. I like to think of this time period as the age of the jellyfish.
Given the environment and the nature of life, it seems probably that huge groups of various types of jellyfish evolved and swam in the seas of this early earth. And possibly, quite possibly, some of those soft bodied creatures grew to enormous size.
For after all, they were the dominant life forms at that time.
One notable fossil is the Pteridinium. Almost like Charnia, this animal was superficially feather-like with an anchor tethering it to the seafloor. What sets it apart from Charnia is how the lobes across its body are positioned. Unlike most animals today whose bodies can be divided into roughly symmetrical left side and right sides, Pteridinium sprouted its “leaflets” in three different directions. As quirky as it seems, the three-fold symmetry is not unique to Pteridinium and its close relatives. One group of small, rounded animals that resemble sea urchins called Trilobozoa somehow developed the same symmetry. One member of this group called Tribrachidium put a literal twist to this body plan, growing three arm-like structures spiraling out from the center of its body.
The reader should think of images of jellyfish, piles, globs and puddles of organic mobile goo. They should envision that these globs formed families or colonies of creatures and often conjugated together in the warm shallow seas.
Over time, the size and diversity of these groups changed.
However, any visitor to the planet would have been astounded by the great numbers of living organic masses that apparently thrived in the seas at that time.
The Ediacaran period was a time of flourishing soft skin and soft shelled life. The seas were alive with lichen and other forms of simple marine life.
Jellyfish are more or less common today.
They have evolved to fulfill their proper environmental niche in the world and have honed their survival instincts into great diversity of forms and creatures.
At this time, however, the jellyfish were of a simpler design.
They were more benign and less adaptable to change.
Many life forms, and species developed, found a particular environmental niche and then died off.
We do not know what any of them looked like, but we can certainly make our own summations.
There is no doubt in my mind that soft-skinned marine life grew to enormous sizes during this time.
I further believe that there were many such variations of these creatures, which should be considered to be the precursors of jellyfishes and other evolutionary “dead ends”.
This is a picture of a huge jellyfish with a diver next to it for comparative purposes. Obviously there were no humans on the planet at this time. I place it here for a comparative aspect in that native life, especially the dominant native life at that time, can and did grow to enormous size.
Perhaps even the size of a whale or larger!
I am confident that these first jellyfishes or similar soft-shelled creatures were genetically primitive, but I am also confident that they were able to specialize and fill various niches in the ecosystem naturally.
In fact, it is highly possible that these creatures could grow to amazing sizes. Though we do not really know for sure.
In any event, the Ediacara biota bear little resemblance to modern life forms. Any soft skinned creatures would be unrecognizable to most humans today.
What the earth looked like at that time.
The Earth 630,000,000 years ago was a very different place. Not only were the contents of different shapes than what we see today, but the weather and climate were also completely different as well.
The earth had poles at a different location and the axis of rotation relative to the obliquity of the ecliptic was completely different to what we know it to be today.
It was an ocean world populated with soft-skinned native life, and very few land based forms.
Yet this world held promise.
Visitors to our solar system would find that the earth not only held a moderately acceptable environment, but also the planet Mars would appear marginally interesting as well. Mars had a thicker atmosphere, and while the once present oceans were long; long gone there would of still been slight evidence of glaciers and other frozen remnants that would of made visiting this solar system of great interest to extraterrestrial explorers.
Rheotaxis in the Garden of the Ediacaran
The “Garden of the Ediacaran” was a period in the ancient past when Earth’s shallow seas were populated with a bewildering variety of enigmatic, soft-bodied creatures.
Scientists traditionally have pictured it as a tranquil, almost idyllic interlude that lasted from 635 to 540 million years ago. But new interdisciplinary studies suggests that the organisms living at the time may have been much more dynamic than experts have thought.
An international team of researchers from Canada, the UK and the USA, including Dr Imran Rahman from the University of Bristol, UK studied fossils of an extinct organism called Tribrachidium, which lived in the oceans some 555 million years ago. Using a computer modelling approach called computational fluid dynamics, they were able to show that Tribrachidium fed by collecting particles suspended in water. This is called suspension feeding and it had not previously been documented in organisms from this period of time.
Tribrachidium lived during a period of time called the Ediacaran, which ranged from 635 million to 541 million years ago. This period was characterised by a variety of large, complex organisms, most of which are difficult to link to any modern species. It was previously thought that these organisms formed simple ecosystems characterised by only a few feeding modes, but the new study suggests they were capable of more types of feeding than previously appreciated.
Dr Simon Darroch, an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University, said:
"For many years, scientists have assumed that Earth's oldest complex organisms, which lived over half a billion years ago, fed in only one or two different ways. Our study has shown this to be untrue, Tribrachidium and perhaps other species were capable of suspension feeding. This demonstrates that, contrary to our expectations, some of the first ecosystems were actually quite complex."
Read more at; https://phys.org/news/2015-11-earth-ecosystems-complex-previously-thought.html More information: 'Suspension feeding in the enigmatic Ediacaran organism Tribrachidium demonstrates complexity of Neoproterozoic ecosystems' by Imran A. Rahman, Simon A. F. Darroch, Rachel A. Racicot and Marc Laflamme in Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1500800
Scientists have found It extremely difficult to fit these Precambrian species into the tree of life. That is because they lived in a time before organisms developed the ability to make shells or bones. As a result, they didn’t leave much fossil evidence of their existence behind, and even less evidence that they moved around.
So, experts have generally concluded that virtually all of the Ediacarans—with the possible exception of a few organisms similar to jellyfish that floated about—were stationary and lived out their adult lives fixed in one place on the sea floor.
The new findings concern one of the most enigmatic of the Ediacaran genera, a penny-sized organism called Parvancorina, which ischaracterized by a series of ridges on its back that form the shape of a tiny anchor.
By analyzing the way in which water flows around Parvancorina’s body, an international team of researchers has concluded that these ancient creatures must have been mobile: specifically, they must have had the ability to orient themselves to face into the current flowing around them.
That would make them the oldest species known to possess this capability, which scientists call rheotaxis.
"Our analysis shows that the amount of drag produced with the current flowing from front to back is substantially less than that flowing from side to side," said Simon Darroch, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt University, who headed the study. "In the strong currents characteristic of shallow ocean environments, that means Parvancorina would have benefited greatly from adjusting its position to face the direction of the flow."
The analysis, which used a technique borrowed from engineering called computational fluid dynamics (CFD), also showed that when Parvancorina faced into the current, its shape created eddy currents that were directed to several specific locations on its body.
"This would be very beneficial to Parvancorina if it was a suspension feeder as we suspect because it would have concentrated the suspended organic material making it easier to consume,"
-Darroch
More information: Simon A. F. Darroch et al, Inference of facultative mobility in the enigmatic Ediacaran organism, Biology Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0033 Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-05-life-precambrian-livelier-previously-thought.html#jCp
The absence of fast-moving animals allowed microbes to colonize the surface of the ocean floor, then create a layer of secretion wherever they grow. Such a sticky layer allowed the sediment to stabilize and acted as a mold when the animals died on top of them. This age was the Time of the Slime, where the ocean floor was filled with sticky substances. Such a slow-paced life, combined with the lack of predators, is a feature unique to this period. As a nod to the biblical Garden of Eden, some people have referred to this peaceful early Earth as the Garden of Ediacara.
Extraterrestrial Occupation
Now I am going to discuss extraterrestrial species and how they interacted with the earth at this time.
Let it be known that the present species that MAJestic interacts with did not exist at that time.
Here we are discussing (mostly) long extinct species that are known to the extraterrestrial species that we interact with today.
But of which they are themselves unfamiliar with them in any degree of detail that they specifically and selectively choose not to communicate with me about. I cannot say much more than that. Cannot.
At this time, the universe was already mature.
So even though our solar system was still rather youthful, the rest of the universe was quite old.
In fact, the universe was already 11 billion years old when the Ediacaran period began.
What this means is that there were entire life cycles of stars that were born, grew into maturity, and died well before our solar system was even formed.
In fact, there is evidence, from the spectral composition of our sun, that at least four generations of previous stars came before our solar system was berthed. This means that it completely realistic to expect the presence of extremely advanced galactic-wide extraterrestrial civilizations with interstellar transport technology in our region of space.
At this time, there was still consternation regarding specific pockets of unorganized quanta that had naturally formed into non-approved quantum soul archetypes.
But none of that really was a concern to our physical world at that time.
The quanta that surrounding the planet was just beginning to formulate into discrete packets; while some might argue otherwise, and the entire region was open for physical extraterrestrial exploration.
(It had been explored much earlier by discarnate soul orders, but that is not our concern at this time.)
+ + +
The Ediacaran period saw the presence of the very first humanoid extraterrestrial bases on the earth.
These facilities were short duration affairs. Mostly used for scientific inquiry. To imagine what these facilities were like, one should consider what the current human research stations look like in Antarctica.
Scout. Scan. Visit. Sample. Leave.
I am quite confident that the extraterrestrial bases were very similar to those facilities in both form and function.
Essentially,we should realistically consider the base facilities at this time and place to be similar to that consisting of a small cluster of habitats around a secured landing area for the associative vehicles.
None of the bases or communities during this entire huge swath of time (during the Ediacaran period) were ever very large.
Typically, the species operated out of their spacecraft, which at that time, tended to be (comparatively) huge. (Not all, and not the “critical” visits. Just the ones that made the greatest disruption in the quantum envelope that is recorded.) They would then send excursions to the surface and form “base camps” which typically tended to consist of rudimentary structures and facilities.
Typically planetary excursions were very; very short lived affairs. Often lasting less than one month in duration.
Although there were a number which lasted for much longer; perhaps as long as two years in duration. However, in all cases, they could just be considered to be scientific excursions, which were there for the purposes of scientific investigation and inquiry.
For some reason, I have always assumed that these visits required large spacecraft with interstellar propulsive capability. However, I do not know if this was the case for every species. Indeed, for the multi-dimensional and higher order species, they might have utilized other methods that are far beyond our level of understanding at this time.
Typically, one might expect (or more accurately, assume) the base facilities to lie close to the equator for reasons of avoiding the gravity sink of the earth. Nevertheless, when one studies the map of the Earth at that time, one can clearly see a problem with the base placement.
It is my arrogant assumption that the extraterrestrial entities needed to land or walk on dry land, and that they would see ocean landings a barrier.
All of this is assumptive on my part.
The reader should be made aware that the poles (North and South) as well as the equator as determined by conventional historical cartographers are typically incorrectly placed.
The axis of rotation and the tilt of the earth at this time was wholly different than what it is today.
The current maps relative to this time has to be adjusted to take this into account. I hope that I was able to rectify this discrepancy in the maps that I presented here.
There weren’t too many dry land locations near the equator at this time.
That severely limited the location of the bases of operation around a water world swimming full of proto-jellyfish like creatures. In any event, none were involved in any type of colonization or industrial facilities.
That I am aware of.
It is entirely possible that contamination of the native ecosystem by extraterrestrial races contributed to the emergence of life on the Earth at this time.
Contamination refers to any extraterrestrial influence on the biology of the earth ecosystem at that time.
We can be assured that there was some degree of contamination.
There always is.
This is both physical, spiritual and in all ways quantum. But, no one knows for sure the impact it had, if any.
Nothing (physical) remains of whatever visitors occupied the earth at this time.
However, there is the remote possibility that the Baigong pipes in China might be the remains of what once was some kind of industrial facility of some type.
The Baigong Pipes are a series of pipe-like features found on and near Mount Baigong, about 40 km southwest of the city of Delingha, in the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China.
Associated with these pipe-like features are "rusty scraps" and "strangely shaped stones".
Analysis of the "rusty scraps" by Liu Shaolin at a "local smeltery" reportedly found that they consist of 30 percent ferric oxide and large amounts of silicon dioxide and calcium oxide.
This is what one would expect of fossilized rust buried in sandy soil.
The state run newspaper People's Daily reported on a 2007 investigation where a research fellow from the Chinese Earthquake Administration reported they had found some of the pipes to be highly radioactive.
Skeptics claim that this is a natural formation (of course they would).
According to any measure of anthropological science, there was no way that naturally evolved tool-making bipedal humanoids could of evolved at this time.
In any event, any remains of artificial constructions from this distant past would be altered beyond appearance and would have alternative material constructions.
For a conventional explanation of what this site is please visit; http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4181.
It has a moderately reasonable conventional explanation for the observed formations. Yet, I must specifically stress to the reader that time and geologic pressures alter the appearance and shape of things..
This site could just as well be a natural site as it could be the remains of a very ancient construction. The reader needs to pursue life with an open mind and consider both possibilities.
The only evidence remaining for (supplemented) human observation are the tell-tale quantum level signatures of early visitations in the (local regional) quantum cloud.
In our universe, every time one quantum particle interacts with another one, even if it is just a thought, it leaves a “mark” for all eternity.
Those with the proper tools can read and understand these marks.
And thus have the ability to observe the past as it transpired, in real time.
We know of a number of extremely advanced races that can do this.
But as far as humans are concerned, only our quantum soul bodies have this ability. (Even at that, it is rudimentary.)
Our physical bodies are wholly unable to access these records. Instead, we must utilize the assistance of other, more advanced physical races.
Unfortunately, we as humans, do not possess the ability to read and interpret these signatures.
We only know what is told to us by those whom have this ability.
What they tell us is quite simplistic.
They tell us that the planet was visited and explored by humanoid bipedal entities at this time. We also know that they traveled through various methods, not limited to physical transport. Indeed dimensional transport seemed to be the most common method.
Their past, history, appearance, and other traits that we might find interesting are shrouded in the mists of time.
That includes what happened to the various species whom visited this planet and where they are today.
This is the full extent of what I know about this time.
Summary
Around 650 million years ago, the first extraterrestrial life set foot on the earth and investigated it. Over time there were numerous subsequent visits. During some of these visits a small number of bases or facilities were constructed for various scientific and investigative purposes.
The solar system at that time was still very young, being only three billion years old. There were many comets and orbiting rocky bodies that yet had to be absorbed or collided with the larger planetary bodies.
Mars was not habitable, but both Mars and Venus were more habitable to ambulatory humanoids than they are today.
To this end, this solar system was of interest because of the three possible marginally desirable planets in the system. The Earth, Venus and Mars. Additionally, since the gas giants were closer to the sun than they are now, and hotter, a number of Jupiter moons possessed atmosphere in a gaseous state, and some even had oceans that held water in a liquid state.
This entire solar system held promise.
The earth at that time was mostly bare rock with oceans teeming with soft-shell creatures.
At that time there was no galactic federation that would claim administration for our solar system.
For the Ediacaran Period of nearly 89 million years, the situation was pretty much a stable one. Our solar system was mapped, explored, and systematically ignored by other species.
The vast bulk of time where this occurred was from 600 Ma to around 560 Ma.
They actually found our solar neighbors far more interesting for a host of reasons, and thus at this time just mostly ignored our solar system.
The solar system was still evolving and there were various comets and rogue asteroids that would and did present a threat to any native life in the solar system. This system was considered to be moderately interesting but not worthy of colonization by any of the species who visited it.
It was noted; explored in a more or less cursory manner, and archived.
Very little happened on the earth in the regard to extraterrestrial involvement of a substantive nature during this time period.
Those MM readers who might wonder what life might resemble around planets in the habitual zone of stars around three billion years old, might well learn from this narrative and explanation here.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Trump’s anti-China rhetoric and actions, including crossing out the prefix “Corona” and replacing it with “China,” are part of a continuation of US empire building that began long before Trump seized power in the Electoral College coup of 2016.
-Counterpunch
My feeds are all clogged up with the hate-China narrative out of Washington DC. Ugh! It’s pretty sick and disgusting. Hate, hate, hate! What a messed up way to start the day!
Additionally, the narrative that the Chinese accidentally released it from a weapons lab in Wuhan is an insult to my intelligence. I guess people don’t know the difference between a automobile factory and a local garage that does tune-ups.
Hint;
Factories and R&D centers have loading bays, electrical substations, and internal water treatment centers. You can see these structures outside the buildings. They have fences, and security guards. They are huge!
Vaccine centers, diagnostic centers, and testing centers are much smaller. They typically consist of a number of offices, and perhaps a small wing devoted to the lab work.They also usually have a parking lot. They tend not to have a fence or security guards.Now, boys and girls, repeat after me:Bio-Weapons Research Labs have fences and security guards.Bio-Weapons Research Labs have fences and security guards.Bio-Weapons Research Labs have fences and security guards.They are not open to the public.They are not on a main public thoroughfare. They are military installations, protected by soldiers, fences, and set far back away from public scrutiny.
So please, stop parroting the Mike Pompeo / Alex Jones "talking points" that the COVID-19 was an "escaped" bio-weapons from a Chinese weapons lab. Jeeze!
The Chinese narrative that the COVID-19 virus came from American military soldiers. The American narrative is that it was released from a vaccine clinic. Which is more likely to have infected the Wuhan “wet” market? Especially since there are videos of American servicemen in that exact market at that exact time. Not to mention the strange things they were doing there. I mean, they ate in restaurants. They did not need to buy groceries to cook in their hotel room, and what’s this putting their hands and touching things so profusely?
.
But that’s how propaganda works, don’t you know. You keep hammering down the same lies over and over again until you start reacting to it instinctively.
You hear it over and over. People talk about it, and make opinions about it. you start believing what you hear without thinking.
Ugh!
Just like billions of dollars had to flow to the software companies to “prevent” Y2K. Remember that? There was a nine month intense narrative that the world was going to collapse unless we immediately “fixed” the Y2K issue!
The Year 2000 problem, also known as the Y2K problem, the Millennium bug, Y2K bug, the Y2K glitch, or Y2K, refers to events related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates beginning in the year 2000. Problems were anticipated, and arose, because many programs represented four-digit years with only the final two digits – making the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900. The assumption of a twentieth-century date in such programs could cause various errors, such as the incorrect display of dates and the inaccurate ordering of automated dated records or real-time events.
-Wikipedia
Same thing.
Say the lies over and over and over, until people instinctively react to them as truths. When in reality, it’s all just lies, manipulations and “smoke screens”. But all that doesn’t matter. Because right here we are going to tell you all what is going on. That is, what’s REALLY going on, and how all these things all fit together.
And it isn’t pretty.
“I love war,” Trump declared during a campaign speech in Iowa in 2015. He added: "I’m good at war. I’ve had a lot of wars of my own. I’m really good at war. I love war in a certain way, but only when we win.”
The Thucydides Trap
"There is no such thing as a Thucydides Trap. It is just an excuse by the democrat-controlled media to attack Trump and make him look bad."
-Anonymous
To understand what is going on today between the United States and China, we should take a look at history. For history clearly describes the dynamics between an established nation, and a growing emerging nation. This dynamic is well documented, well understood, and quite predictable.
America is the “established” nation.
China is the growing nation.
More than 2,400 years ago, the Athenian historian Thucydides offered a powerful insight into the causes of the awful Peloponnesian War; a war that pitted military Sparta against democratic Athens…
“It was the rise of Athens, and the fear that this inspired in Sparta, that made war inevitable.”
The Peloponnesian War; a war that pitted military Sparta against democratic Athens.
Other writers identified an array of contributing causes of the Peloponnesian War. But it was Thucydides that nailed down the true causes and the heart of the matter.
Thucydides, instead of looking at the minute details, focused instead on the inexorable, structural stress caused by a rapid shift in the balance of power between the two rivals.
Sparta was, for over a hundred years, the dominant city-nation.
Athens was growing, expanding, and eclipsing Sparta on every front.
Thucydides identified two key drivers of this dynamic:
The rising power’s growing entitlement, sense of its importance, and demand for greater say and sway.
And the entrenched, well established nation that possessed the fear, insecurity, and determination to defend the status quo this engenders in the established power base.
In the case about which he wrote in the fifth century B.C., Athens had emerged over a half century as a steeple of civilization. There, there were advances in philosophy, understanding of history, pleasures of drama, new types of architecture, political governance based upon democracy, and naval prowess.
This shocked Sparta. For more than a century had been the leading land power on the Peloponnese peninsula.
As Thucydides saw it, Athens’s position was understandable.
As its clout grew, so too did its self-confidence, its consciousness of past injustices, its sensitivity to instances of disrespect, and its insistence that previous arrangements be revised to reflect new realities of power.
It was also natural, Thucydides explained, that Sparta interpreted the Athenian posture as unreasonable, ungrateful, and threatening to the system it had established—and within which Athens had flourished.
Thucydides chronicled the objective changes in relative power between the two. However, he also focused on the perceptions of change among the leaders of both nations. These perceptions, in both Athens and Sparta, led each to strengthen alliances with other nation-states in the hopes of counterbalancing the other.
But entanglement runs both ways. When conflict broke out between the second-tier city-states of Corinth and Corcyra (now Corfu), Sparta felt it necessary to come to Corinth’s defense, which left Athens little choice but to back its ally. The Peloponnesian War followed. When it ended 30 years later, Sparta was the nominal victor. But both states lay in ruin, leaving Greece vulnerable to the Persians.
And the eventual destruction of the Greeks at the hands of the Persians.
Germany and Britain
Let’s consider more modern times. Where people drive cars, have electricity, fly in the air in planes and have “manners”. Let’s look at the world right before World War I. Let’s consider a rising Germany to a content and powerful England.
As Germany’s economy surpassed Britain’s, Germany would not only develop the strongest army on the continent. It would soon also “build as powerful a navy as she can afford.” In other words, Kissinger writes…
“once Germany achieved naval supremacy … this in itself—regardless of German intentions—would be an objective threat to Britain, and incompatible with the existence of the British Empire.”
Three years after reading that memo, Edward VII died.
Attendees at his funeral included two “chief mourners”—Edward’s successor, George V, and Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm—along with Theodore Roosevelt representing the United States.
At one point, Roosevelt (an avid student of naval power and leading champion of the buildup of the U.S. Navy) asked Wilhelm whether he would consider a moratorium in the German-British naval arms race. The kaiser replied that Germany was unalterably committed to having a powerful navy.
But as he went on to explain, war between Germany and Britain was simply unthinkable, because…
“I was brought up in England, very largely; I feel myself partly an Englishman. Next to Germany I care more for England than for any other country.”
And then with emphasis: “I ADORE ENGLAND!”
However unimaginable conflict seems, however catastrophic the potential consequences for all actors, however deep the cultural empathy among leaders, even blood relatives, and however economically interdependent states may be—none of these factors is sufficient to prevent war, in 1914 or today.
It doesn’t matter.
China and America
The warning lights and the alarm bells have been going off for some time now. It is well established that there would be some conflict or a deterioration of relationships between the two powers. Around 2009 it was unmistakable and this prompted some firm policy adjustments in America; in Washington DC.
President Obama believed that this kind of global realignment was a natural historical progression. He argued that while America might “sunset” in various areas, China could be “managed” in such a way as to derive a kind of “partnership” where both the United States and China would win and profit in a kind of “give and take” international relationship.
For a while, it appeared that the Thucydides Trap was avoided.
But then…
Donald Trump ran for President. His policy platform was MAGA, which means “Make America Great Again”.
Donald Trump campaigned on a long list of extravagant promises:
End all foreign wars and reveal “who really did 9/11,” bring the troops home, pull out of the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), ban all Muslims from entering the US, wall off the entire southern border at Mexico’s expense, end NAFTA, CAFTA, TPP and all trade treaties, bring manufacturing back to America, end NATO and all alliances (unless the vassals vastly increase their tribute payments, which they won’t), rebuild America’s infrastructure, demand and get vastly better trade terms from China, resurrect 1950s-style family values, and restore Americans’ pride in their history.
These are, in essence, the specifics behind Trump’s promise to “make America great again.”
-Does the Presidential Election Matter?
Trump’s chief rival target was China and he pledged to [1] bring back American jobs (from China), [2] stop the dependence on imported products (from China), to [3] rebuild and increase the size of the military, and [4] re-work and realign relationships with other nations for American self-interest.
Sound familiar?
Once Hitler came to power he wanted to make Germany great again. His chief villains were the Jews. And his actions were all about eradicating the Jewish treat to Germany.
It's not that I am equating Trump with Hitler. That meme is so 2015. It's just that all nationalistic movements require an enemy to galvanize the people against. In the 1930's it was the "Jews against Germany".
Today it is China against America.
So Trump is in office, and he’s realigning all sorts of issues into his vision for the “perfect” world order.
Neocon Administration
Americans, tired of the social and economic onslaught and minimizing behavior of their leadership for the last three decades flocked to Donald Trump. They attended rallies where he would proclaim that he would [1] make America great again, [2] put Hillary Clinton behind bars, [3] build a wall around the United States, and [4] bring jobs back to America.
He won the election.
Once taking over the reins of power, he staffed his administration with “neocons”, individuals with a particularly warlike views and ideas.
Neocon
A small, but constant clique in the US administration that is responsible for most of the recent US military invasions around the globe. To quote neocon Pompeo: 'I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole'
-Urban Dictionary
Not only are Neocons very “hawkish” regarding war….
… But they also believe in History, and the role that empires have in shaping history. In fact, they believe in Thucydides and his writings.
If you were to ask any neocon about what is written herein, they would 100% agree with everything this article is saying …
Among their intellectual ancestors neoconservatives count the ancient Greek historian Thucydides for his unblinking realism in military matters and his skepticism toward democracy, as well as Alexis de Tocqueville, the French author of Democracy in America (1835–40), who described and analyzed both the bright and the bad sides of democracy in the United States.
More recent influences include the German-born American political philosopher Leo Strauss and several of his students, such as Allan Bloom; Bloom’s student Francis Fukuyama; and a small band of intellectuals who in their youth were anti-Stalinist communists (specifically Trotskyites) before becoming liberals disillusioned with liberalism. The latter include Irving Kristol, Nathan Glazer, and Norman Podhoretz, among others.
-Britannica
And surrounded by his small army of War-Hawk Neocons, he set forth establishing policy.
Trump is the embodiment of this looking-for-a-fight attitude. Not good. He has surrounded himself with over-age Cold Warriors, with generals, with the pathologically aggressive hangers-on from think-tank Washington: John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Nikki Haley, Steve Bannon, and minor squibs of like outlook. He has pulled the US out of the arms-control treaties, START, INF, Open Skies. He has pushed NATO against Russian borders. In the Legion halls of Idaho, this may seem virile, the sort of thing that John Wayne would do. Back the commies down. Show them who is boss. No. It is just pointless and dangerous.
-UNZ
In sort order, once Donald Trump won the 2016 election, he immediately, from day one, started his program of MAGA. He did not waste time. He did not pause. He did not relax.
America was (from the top down) full-on MAGA.
Despite campaigning against endless foreign wars and a humanitarian-based foreign policy that promotes democracy, President Donald Trump appointed several internationalists and neoconservatives to his administration, including John Bolton and Mike Pompeo.
Alex Jones has claimed that neo-conservatives, as part of a deep state, have been fighting a civil war inside the United States Government in order to gain control of the government and influence President Donald Trump – himself, Paul Joseph Watson, and David Knight also claimed this throughout Infowars segments, and that the recent missiles launched against Assad were a result of the neo-conservatives attempting to control Donald Trump.
Stefan Halper, a neoconservative of the Bush Sr. era, colluded with Obama CIA Director John Brennan and FBI agent Peter Strzok to set-up Trump advisors Carter Page and George Papadopoulos as supposed agents of the Russia government, to initiate an FBI counterintelligence investigation and procure a FISA warrant to surveil the 2016 Trump campaign, Trump transition team, and well into the first year of the Trump Administration.
-Neoconservatism and Donald Trump
Key to that program was the suppression of China. Much of which involved actions and activities that were NOT reported in the American press.
What does a neoconservative dream world look like?
Neocons envision a world in which the United States is the unchallenged superpower, immune to threats. They believe that the US has a responsibility to act as a “benevolent global hegemon.”
In this capacity, the US would maintain an empire of sorts by helping to create democratic, economically liberal governments in place of “failed states” or oppressive regimes they deem threatening to the US or its interests.
In the neocon dream world the entire Middle East would be democratized in the belief that this would eliminate a prime breeding ground for terrorists. This approach, they claim, is not only best for the US; it is best for the world.
In their view, the world can only achieve peace through strong US leadership backed with credible force, not weak treaties to be disrespected by tyrants.
Any regime that is outwardly hostile to the US and could pose a threat would be confronted aggressively, not “appeased” or merely contained.
The US military would be reconfigured around the world to allow for greater flexibility and quicker deployment to hot spots in the Middle East, as well as Central and Southeast Asia.
The US would spend more on defense, particularly for high-tech, precision weaponry that would be used in preemptive strikes.
It would work through multilateral institutions such as the United Nations when possible, but otherwise must never be constrained from acting in its best interests whenever necessary.
-Neocon 101
January 2017
Donald Trump “hit the ground running”. He wasted no time in building up his team, staffing it with aggressive neocons and working on a strategy to suppress China. It’s an implementation of his campaign promises; Make America Great Again.
Unlike President Obama, Donald Trump embraced (or fell into) the Thucydides Trap.
The goals were simple;
Reclaim American “greatness” in all fields, in all areas.
Establish dominance in the Geo-political arena.
Suppress China in such a way that they would always be “under the control or authority” of the United States.
Do whatever is necessary to accomplish the above.
Look familiar?
1. Reclaim Spartian "greatness" in all fields, in all areas.
2. Establish dominance in the Peloponnesian arena.
3. Suppress Athens in such a way that they would always be under the control or authority of Sparta.
4. Do whatever is necessary to accomplish the above.
In so doing there were some issues that needed to be addressed and some resources that he had access to.
Outstanding Issues
There were things that China was involved in that were threatening the level of control that America had over China. Trump needed to collapse or mitigate those issues quickly. If he did not, China’s rise would pass the point of no-return. In the collective minds of the neocons, it was now or never.
The primary issues at stake were…
Relationships in Africa. China was building relationships based on jobs, trade, and social improvements. The time-honored American technique of providing wads of cash to third-world dictators was no longer effective. This was giving China unique mineral and resource access, that America was denied.
Belt and Road Initiative. As long as the only way that China could maintain trade was via the sea-lanes, the United States could threaten the sea-lanes and completely collapse the ability of China to conduct trade. This threat has been real and substantive. The Belt and Road Initiative would be a land trade route. Completely bypassing the sea-lane trade routes, and rendering the American Naval threat moot.
Taiwan. Taiwan is a client state of China. Yet the American media presents it as an independent nation in the hopes that once China is weak, an American invasion of Taiwan can occur. The reason why this is so critical is that the United States needs a “safe haven” from whence to launch ground forces. Taiwan is the perfect staging location. Make no mistake, an invasion of China is a long-term dream of the neocon cabal. The first key step is to PUSH China into engaging Taiwan militarily.
Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a financial and technical hub, not to mention a gateway to the rest of Asia. As long as Hong Kong is stable, Europe will continue to conduct business with China. Therefore creating a unstable Hong Kong would effective disentangle Europe from China.
Trade. You would think that (with all the news discussing the trade imbalance) that this would be a significant issue. In the grand scheme of things, however, it really isn’t much of an issue at all. The majority of trade between China and the USA is between American companies, manufacturing products in their factories inside of China and shipping them to America. Not Chinese companies. Of that, less than 11% of exports from China goes to America. Looking at the entire issue, it’s really well blown out of proportion.
The Plan
Work on a plan to suppress China, for certain, was formulated prior to President Trump’s inauguration.
No one knows the true extent of the planning, or any details of the discussions involved. However, we can pretty much recognize that the people who helped formulate this war-suppression-strategy were…
Donald Trump
Mike Pompeo
John Bolton
Robert Lighthizer
Rudy Giuliani
Nikki Haley
James Woolsey
Frank Gaffney
Eliot Cohen
All of these people advocate for military intervention to accomplish United States objectives.
You see, the thing is that every single simulation where the American military tries to take on China, the United States LOSES. Often, depending on the scenario, quite badly. Thus, if America takes on China militarily, in the South China Sea, the results would probably be disastrous.
They cannot ignore this fact.
So a direct military campaign was not the first choice of the “task team”.
Instead they had to come up with a scenario or a plan that would be suppress China and meet all the criteria as discussed. While at the same time avoiding armed military conflict with a HEALTHY VIBRANT China. The Trump administration was faced with a “first”. Just how to suppress China, without using any overt military resources that might result in a nuclear response?
They sat down and came up with an idea.
“I love war,” Trump declared during a campaign speech in Iowa in 2015. He added: "I’m good at war. I’ve had a lot of wars of my own. I’m really good at war. I love war in a certain way, but only when we win.”
Neocon Echo Chamber
Their plan is based on what they believe China is.
Hard-line Communist.
Multitudes / hordes of impoverished people.
A deceptive media that hides the “true and real China”.
A population yearning for “freedom” and “democracy”.
A hated leadership that rules by sheer power.
Well, since this belief system has been so ingrained in the consciousness of the neocon administration, the came up with a plan that would be able to attack this pre-concieved image of what China is…
Since the people are large in number, and miserable, if you add additional strife and problems, they will revolt uncontrollably. They will topple the government. Then, in the confusion, the USA can establish and control the new leadership. As the USA has become experts in this kind of activity over the last number of decades. It’s an American strength that no one has figured out how to deal with effectively.
The entire plan is based on illusions and falsehoods.
I have been to China several times. I am also in contact with people in China. I can say this. Pompeo's belief that:
... the Chinese people hate the Communist Party of China that runs the country...
- is simply not true.
Among Chinese citizens there has recently been a huge upsurge in positive opinions about the Chinese system. This is due, in part, to its success in containing the Coronavirus.
At the same time there has been a tremendous disillusionment with the United States due to its failure to manage the Coronavirus. There is almost a sense of disbelief that America has failed so badly in dealing with the virus.
There used to be a saying in China that "Even the moon shines more brightly on America." That saying was demonstrated a genuine admiration for the United States and its accomplishments. But due to many things - including the institutional failure to deal with the Coronavirus - very few Chinese people say that anymore.
A second thing that is spurring a positive belief in the Chinese system by its' citizens is China's ever increasing standard of living. People who have never been there might very well find themselves astonished by what is happening there. I have been there four times in the past ten years. Each time, the improvement in the material standard of living is not just noticeable but dramatic. The Chinese people can see this with their own eyes. Before the virus hit, many Chinese citizens had become wealthy enough to the West and they discovered that, increasingly, China was comparing favorably with the West in terms of their standard of living. This has increased the belief among Chinese citizens that their country is on the right path.
There is a third thing that is important to note. There has been a recent rise in Chinese nationalism which is due - not only to the factors mentioned above - but due to Trump and Pompeo themselves. Contrary to common belief, the Chinese have a lot of access to Western media. Many Chinese study English and can read the Western media in English. They know the things being said by Trump and Pompeo which intended to malign China. Many Chinese are, not so much angry but, rather understand this is a sign of increasing weakness on the part of the United States.
In short, the actions of Pompeo are not "inciting the Chinese to act against their government" but rather convincing the Chinese that American greatness is passing into history and China's time is arriving.
Posted by: Mike from Jersey | Nov 18 2020 21:22 utc | 25
The basic plan
If China could be “broken” with all sorts of internal strife, starvation, misery, distress, and trouble, China would weaken.
It’s people would revolt.
And people would turn to “The shining city on the hill.” for help, “freedom” and “democracy”. These people would wave American flags, they would sing the American National Anthem, and they would display “Pepe the frog” in graffiti as they burned the cities down.
As a result, the United States could capitalize on that situation.
This would, if properly handled, result in forward staging bases on Taiwan, with a naval harbor there.
Create uprisings and strife at the two gateways for the Belt and Road Initiative. (HK and XinJiang)
Create Chinese starvation by decimation of all pork, chicken, wheat, and grain industries.
Offer CIA “incentives” in African nations.
An anti-China propaganda campaign would galvanize Americans against China and it’s products.
“Incentivize” American companies to bring factories back to America.
An anti-China technology campaign would destroy existing business relationships in Europe and across the globe.
A pandemic that would suppress China, but would ignore America.
Then prep for a hot war with the establishment of staging bases on Taiwan.
This is an eight-year plan, and assumes two complete terms as President for Donald Trump. The time table would look something like this…
First term in office 2016 through 2020.
Move the puzzle pieces and assets in place.
Start famines, trade disputes, regional classes, and strife.
Keep up an enormous program of anti-China propaganda.
Create “minor” military skirmishes in the South China Sea.
Then… if China is NOT suppressed and under the control of pro-American forces by the end of the Trump first term (Fall of 2020). A different direction must be taken.
In a strongly worded speech delivered as the relationship between Beijing and Washington plummeted to new lows this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that “the old paradigm of blind engagement” with China had failed. Mike Pompeo: "If the free world doesn’t change communist China, communist China will change us."
-We must change China or China will change us, Pompeo …
Announce this publicly, and create a military army to attack China. Enlist local nations to do “the heavy lifting” and provide staging locations.
Mr Pompeo accused China's governing Communist Party of "exploitation, corruption and coercion". He was meeting counterparts from Australia, India and Japan - a group known as "The Quad" - to discuss an increasingly assertive China. Under the Trump administration, relations between the US and China have plummeted to their worst in decades.
-Mike Pompeo lashes out at China at 'Quad' meeting in Japan
Build up a military coalition to engage Chinese military locally. (The QUAD).
Create a “need” for the American military to enter China to “save the people”.
Then create an “emergency”, blame it on China.
Go to war. But make sure that the QUAD does most of the fighting.
Since America has “never lost a war”, the victory of America is a foregone conclusion. China hasn’t a chance (in the minds of the neocons).
Additionally there is the possibility of a successful presidential successor that could implement successive states in a complete global realignment to fit the long-term neocon plan. Eventually turning China into a client state of America, like Japan, Australia, or Canada.
Implementation
This plan of course is secret / confidential. It’s not advertised. Though, it was moving forward with great rapidity throughout the first term of Donald Trump in office.
I’ve covered all the elements in other posts in far greater detail. There you can see the details. Links are as provided herein.
This is just an overview.
Create strife in HK. The “pro-democracy” protests were implemented by NED / NID insurgents under the guise of being “journalists”. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
Create strife in Xinjiang. Radicalized and CIA trained Muslim insurgents creating “fifth column“ activities. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
Forced Starvation. Destruction of the pork industry via drones and aerosol viruses, destruction of the chicken industry, the wheat and rice industries, and multiple waves of germ attacks. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
African Incentives. This is ongoing. Though lately a number of nations are demanding that China pay billions of dollars to them for COVID-19 damage. I cannot help but see a CIA hand in all this. <HERE><HERE><HERE>
Incentivize American Businesses. Enormous amounts of money has been handed to American companies throughout trumps first term of office, the greatest amounts came during the 2020 “COVID bailout”. However, no companies have shown any interest in returning operations to America. <HERE><HERE><HERE>
Anti-China propaganda campaign. This is hot and heavy. Apparently it’s working a full 30% of Americans hate China and blame it for all the American ills. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
Anti-China technology campaign. Well the arrest of the Huawei President and the suppression of 5G technology is only the tip of the iceberg. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
A Pandemic that would suppress China but ignore America. This is the highlight of the plan and really interesting. Three strains. A, B, and C. All unleashed on the world. Lethal strain B is for China. It is dangerous and lethal. However, Americans get the A virus. This virus is mild and safe. It self inoculates (or was intended to). It is designed for Americans to have “Herd Immunity”. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
An Alliance of other nations. By building a coalition of nations, the entire group could gang up against China in bulk. This includes strong showings by Australia, Canada, and the UK. <HERE>
Establish American Bases on Taiwan. Ongoing and NOT public.
In fact, the US is already engaged in “multi-domain” “hybrid warfare” with China. This is warfare just below the threshold of direct military engagement. On the ground this involves:
Economic Warfare: trade sanctions and tariff war, as well as technological warfare: attempted seizure of Chinese companies (TikTok); attacks on China’s international 5G contracts; sanctions on the primary and secondary supply chains of key sectors of Chinese industry (e.g. Huawei’s semiconductor supply chain); attacks on Ant Finance’s IPO.
Legal Warfare, or “lawfare,” including over 380 anti-China bills in Congress, and 14 individual and state lawsuits against China for over $30 Trillion in “Covid damages”; the long arm “legal” kidnapping of Huawei’s executive.
Diplomatic Warfare, including consulate shutdowns, harassment of diplomats, breaching of diplomatic pouches and compounds, and calls for regime change .
Military Brinksmanship and posturing in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Taiwan straits; complete encirclement of China with strategic weapons, surveillance, and 400 offensive bases (“The Pacific Pivot”), the use of airbases in Taiwan for military actions, and plans to station intermediate range nuclear missiles all along China’s periphery[2].
Civil Subversion: color revolution , urban terror, destabilization and delegitimation operations in Hong Kong (and other places where China has interests), including millions of dollars of funneled for organization and training, and encrypted communications infrastructure built to coordinate anti-government activities.
Academic Warfare: through the FBI’s China Initiative, every 10 hours a case is opened against a Chinese student or researcher in the US (currently 2700 cases) and all Chinese students are considered potential “non-traditional” “collectors, spies” involved in a “thousand grains of sand” collection strategy.
Information Warfare: last but not least, we are seeing total Information warfare.
The stories about so-called “massive human rights abuses,” “Chinese concentration camps,” “Chinese-made-and-released Covid,” “China has harmed us economically,” “China has stolen its way to the top,” “China is oppressing independent Hong Kong,” are part of this information warfare.
This is mass propaganda to incite people to hate China irrationally and unconditionally, to manufacture consent for war. The US military calls this information warfare, “the firehose of falsehoods ” and we are all being drenched with these lies.
This is necessary (in a “democracy”) to justify war against an enemy and to curtail any rational discussion or questioning.
If things went as planned…
If things went as planned, China would be a poisonous stew of conflict with all sorts of internal troubles, starvation, insurrections and conflicts. The workers would be sick and dying and the anti-China propaganda campaign would scare companies from trading (or continuing to trade) with China. No hot war would ever be necessary.
The COVID-19 germ bio-warfare released at the most vulnerable time for social communicability on CNY eve, would completely turn China into a basket case.
Meaning of Idiom ‘Basket Case’.
A basket case is a situation that is so nervous or anxious that they are completely incapacitated and thus are considered non-functioning.
Something unable to cope with a situation; someone or something unable to function.
The American military were housed at the Wuhan Oriental Hotel along with the Koreans, and the Iranian military participants in the Wuhan military games. This hotel was located one lock away from the Huanan Seafood Market, the “wet market” where the COVID-19 outbreak originated from.
Hospitals, civil services, and all government would be overwhelmed. People would be clamoring for peace and stability, and that would open up an opportunity for the United States to begin harassment in the area around Taiwan. HK would be in turmoil. Military actions would fracture Xinjiang, and alliances would crumble.
If you recall, in February and March 2020, two carrier battle groups were being sent to that area…
… up until they had to make emergency stops at Guam for COVID-19A lethal outbreaks.
By the time the end of the Summer rolled around, American intervention in Taiwan would be in action. Success would flood the airwaves, whether true or not, and trump being a “War President” would take complete control of the government with landslide victories in both Congress and the Senate.
Then with a solid control of the Washington apparatus, the subsequent phases of action could proceed. Which would of course mean military troops, on the ground, to “liberate” the Chinese yearning for “American freedom” and “American democracy”.
Ah. But it’s gonna be a tough sell, don’t you know…
But, the real China is nothing like what the neocons think it is.
China is quite different than what the Neocon echo chamber says it is…
95% of the Chinese population are proud of China and it’s leadership.
Almost 100% of the population has seen dramatic increases in their standard of living compared to their parents.
The population is hysterically patriotic.
China is a nation of nerds with over four times the number of STEM graduates than Americans.
China is ruled by merit.
China is self-sufficient in food, and most raw materials.
China is proud of it’s culture, it’s society and it’s history.
Things didn’t go as planned
No, things did not go as planned.
They never go as planned.
Someone should tell these neocons that you have to have a few “projects” “under your belt” first before you try implementing them. Things never go according to plan and if you go ahead and kick a dog, expect him to snap at you and bite your arm. China will not watch while all this happens and not train, prepare, plan and take action.
While all this was going on, China knew what the neocons were planning. China and Russia shared intel data, and combined saw that America was an active and real threat. If China collapses, Russia would be next. If Russia collapses, China would be next. So what did they do?
Then at the same time, they started to warn the United States to stop; just stop… please just stop…
Among the myriad, earth-shattering geopolitical effects of coronavirus, one is already graphically evident. China has re-positioned itself. For the first time since the start of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in 1978, Beijing openly regards the US as a threat, as stated a month ago by Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Munich Security Conference during the peak of the fight against coronavirus.
Beijing is carefully, incrementally shaping the narrative that, from the beginning of the coronovirus attack, the leadership knew it was under a hybrid war attack. Xi’s terminology is a major clue. He said, on the record, that this was war. And, as a counter-attack, a “people’s war” had to be launched.
Moreover, he described the virus as a demon or devil. Xi is a Confucianist. Unlike some other ancient Chinese thinkers, Confucius was loath to discuss supernatural forces and judgment in the afterlife. However, in a Chinese cultural context, devil means “white devils” or “foreign devils”: guailo in Mandarin, gweilo in Cantonese. This was Xi delivering a powerful statement in code.
When Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, voiced in an incandescent tweet the possibility that “it might be US Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan” – the first blast to this effect to come from a top official – Beijing was sending up a trial balloon signaliing that the gloves were finally off. Zhao Lijian made a direct connection with the Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019, which included a delegation of 300 US military...
-https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/china-locked-in-hybrid-war-with-us/
They also watched with some degree of hope that the intel information was incorrect, and that the United States would stop. That the United States would end it’s anti-Chinese propaganda campaign, it’s anti-China technology assault, and it’s anti-China biological warfare programs…
But America wasn’t listening…
Trade. The “Trump Trade Negotiations” were all a “smokescreen”. No one in the Trump administration wanted any kind of agreement. None. Not at all. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
Factories Returning. Well, no factories are returning to America. America is over regulated, the wages are too high, the quality of worker is too low, and the corruption at the state and local levels are absurd. <HERE><HERE><HERE>
Famine. The attempt to destroy the Chinese food supply proceeded as planned. It’s just that the image of what China actually is was completely out of alignment with what the Trump advisors expected. So even though the assaults went as planned, the were unable to induce a famine. <HERE><HERE><HERE>
Propaganda. The Anti-China propaganda campaign seems to be working, though it’s giving everyone fatigue. On more than one occasion I have seen people complaining. They say “Get this shit off my feed. Heck you need waders to plow through all the muck.”
In June Donald Trump announced that he would stop the campaign.
Has anyone seen this from Rod Campbell of Australia Institute? He claims thousands of bot accounts controlled by US government spread the Wuhan bioweapons narrative nearly 5 million times in the first half of 2020:
https://www.facebook.com/HongKongGoodNews/videos/200057774713941/
Technology. The Anti-China technology campaign is hit and miss. Certainly the drums are beating and there are skirmishes. Huawei, however is still in business, and many non-American companies, and nations are moving with the Chinese 5G model. But in July, he went all out, and went against all things china…
Road and Belt. This requires Pakistan agreements and ports in the Mediterranean. Everything has been going well. That is up until a massive explosion that some have referred to as a “mini-nuke” totally and completely gutted the Lebanon port in Beirut. An interesting assessment;
The Port of Beirut poses the biggest geostrategic threat to American power projection because China’s Silk Road is fast creeping towards the docks at Beirut Port. The US, having recently forced Israel to cancel its Haifa rail contract with China, has dampened the Chinese advance in the eastern Mediterranean, and what remains now in the path of the US is the Beirut Port. The US must either invade it to block the Chinese geostrategic mission creep, or else destroy it.
https://thesaker.is/china-newsbrief-sitrep-3/
And then it appears that a great accident destroyed it. Imagine that! What the coincidence!
Moreover, the Port of Beirut also poses the biggest geostrategic threat for the US’s eastward-bound power projection where China and its new Silk Road operation is fast creeping westwards and is attempting to land at the eastern coastal strip of the Mediterranean, right where the Beirut Port docks. The US having recently forced Israel to cancel its Haifa contact with China has somewhat dampened the Chinese advance in the eastern Mediterranean, and what remains now in the path of the US is the Beirut Port. The US must either invade it to block the Chinese geostrategic mission creep, or else destroy it.
Evidently, the US has chosen the latter option – with Israel assigned the task of accomplishing the destruction of Beirut Port. After all, for different reasons, both benefit greatly from Beirutshima.
And so very timely is this destruction of the Beirut Port as the Lebanese government has very recently been in official talks with the Chinese over their offer to vastly invest in and develop the Beirut Port: a much needed gateway port and bridge into Europe for China, which represents an absolutely intolerable equation for the US’s hegemony in Europe. The Beirut Port’s rebuilding to its previous standard of activity will be contingent on strict conditions imposed by the US and Israel on the Lebanese government, if the port is allowed to be rebuilt at all, that is. Most certainly, the US is determined not to allow the Chinese any executive, investment or managerial access to it.
...
And this larger US project has everything to do with the current US war on China, albeit presently a non-military war, but a war nevertheless, a war that the Pentagon is militarily preparing for – hence the ever increasing and breathtakingly high defense budget that Congress has been allocating to the US military throughout the terms of the last three Presidents.
The US having lost Pakistan to the China sphere of influence, thus losing an attack dog bordering China, and having recently assigned Turkey as its new enforcer in the middle east, it now behooves the US to use its Mideast allies of both Turkey and Israel, two infamous terrorist states who regularly break international law with impunity: use them as spoilers and saboteurs against an advancing China and against any of Beijing’s Mideast regional allies.
Beirutshima is clearly an apparent US endeavor to push-back the Chinese advance in the highly strategic eastern Mediterranean, as the US attempts to simultaneously pivot eastwards itself through secured territories wherever China is successfully backtracked by the US and its regional henchmen.
But, can this grand geostrategic plan really work for the benefit of the US? Can the US really succeed at remaining the only superpower in the world by the incessant knee-capping of China’s new Silk Road project?
This is yet to be determined. But judging by the deep budgetary and societal crisis engulfing the US homeland, with no sign whatsoever of its deepening troubles abating, analysts doubt that the US has lungs large enough to last the whole race through with China. Here I will add that the US-China fight over the Beirut Port is not yet over. One wonders what went through the mind of the wily Chinese ambassador in Lebanon to witness the Beirut Port exploding as it shockingly did: to witness his pet project and assignment be destroyed right before his eyes and right before a signed agreement was made between him and the Lebanese government of Diab.
-UR
COVID-19. It is the pandemic where China decided to stop playing “defense” and go on the “offense”. This is the way that Donald Trump had decided to wage war upon China. This is how he planned to destroy it, create turmoil, and suppress it.
But…
But the Trump administration did not expect China to be so aggressive, and proactive. They expected them to be passive, and at best muster up some sort of United Nations complaint.
Let’s talk about this…
The COVID-19 bio-weapon attack
"But... but war with China, or even Iran, is crazy! No rational country could even consider it!"
Sure, no "rational" country would even contemplate it.
I've got bad news for you.
Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 18 2020 21:32 utc | 28
America continues in it’s bio-weapon assault.
The six prior viruses against food stuck and livestock were quite successful, but they did not create starvation. Which, I am sure, was a complete surprise to the neocons in the administration. I’m sure that they pretty much “chalked it up” to heavy totalitarian control by the Chinese government instead of the actual reason…
… that China is pretty much self-sufficient in food, and has systems in place to mitigate shortages no matter how extreme.
So Trump decided to release one against the Chinese people directly. I am also sure that the Trump administration felt that “this time” their suppression techniques would work.
They took their time, selected the proper viral agent, and planned the timing directly. Nothing was left for chance. They released it at the exact geographical center of the population, and at the absolutely worst time of the year. They “felt” and believed that China would be unable to handle it, and that the worst elements would be contained within China, and that the rest of the world (those aligned with the USA) would get herd immunity with the very “soft” minor strain.
[1] Location
Indeed, they released it in the exact center of the population of China…
The American COVID-19B bio-weapon was released in the geographic center of the population density of China.
.
[2] Timing
The timing was also significant. As it was during the peak social time, where the mass migration occurred within China. It is a time when everyone travels, where huge crowds are common and normal, and everyone is in very close proximity to each other.
The very, extremely suspicious timing of the release of the bio-weapon.
.
[3] Anti-China propaganda campaign
it's so interesting when people pretend to be ignorant when it is useful to them. I thought that was a specific American trait. So let's give the answer to the author asking the question:
Once the Americans are indoctrinated into hating China, they will be willing to go to war with China and will be willing to accept wha the government will do in the name of "fighting China". Same how the Americans were indoctrinated into hating Soviet Union and Communism during the 50s and 60s and 70s. The government then can throw as much money into the military in the name of "fighting China" and the Americans will be fine with it.
Posted by: Hoyeru | Nov 18 2020 19:52 utc | 2
Further, the timing was such that it was coordinated with an anti-China propaganda campaign that was stunning in it’s size, magnitude and breadth of extent. When the incubated viruses started to manifest in Wuhan, the anti-China narrative exploded all across the world.
So…
So…
So America launches a very dangerous bio-weapon attack on Chinese New Year eve.
The timing was such that it would have spread like a fire inside a bone dry barn filled with hay. This was the time when everyone was traveling together in tight quarters. When everyone was drunk and hugging each other. This was the time when the virus could explode upon an unsuspecting China and devastate it completely.
If China did not take immediate action, the entire nation would have turned into a complete “basket case”.
But that is not what happened.
China’s early conventional efforts seemed unsuccessful in halting the spread of the disease.
Then on Jan. 23rd and after only 17 deaths, the Chinese government took the astonishing step of locking down and quarantining the entire 11 million inhabitants of the city of Wuhan, a story that drew worldwide attention. They soon extended this policy to the 60 million Chinese of Hubei province, and not longer afterward shut down their entire national economy and confined 700 million Chinese to their homes, a public health measure probably a thousand times larger than anything previously undertaken in human history. So either China’s leadership had suddenly gone insane, or they regarded this new virus as an absolutely deadly national threat, one that needed to be controlled at any possible cost.
Given these dramatic Chinese actions and the international headlines that they generated, the current accusations by Trump Administration officials that China had attempted to minimize or conceal the serious nature of the disease outbreak is so ludicrous as to defy rationality.
In any event, the record shows that on December 31st, the Chinese had already alerted the World Health Organization to the strange new illness, and Chinese scientists published the entire genome of the virus on Jan. 12th, allowing diagnostic tests to be produced worldwide.
Unlike other nations, China had received no advance warning of the nature or existence of the deadly new disease, and therefore faced unique obstacles. But their government implemented public health control measures unprecedented in the history of the world and managed to almost completely eradicate the disease with merely the loss of a few thousand lives.
-American Pravda: Our Coronavirus Catastrophe as Biowarfare Blowback?
(For some reason…) China went on full military alert.
It went DEFCON ONE on CNY eve. This is something that no one in any of the mainstream American media, the Alt-Left or the Alt-Right media is talking about. China went DEFCON ONE. China’s military were all called up, and everyone was manning their posts, and that included ALL OF THE millions of reservists and militia.
The last time that this happened in America was in October 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The DEFCON system was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and unified and specified combatant commands. It prescribes five graduated levels of readiness (or statuses of alert) for the U.S. military, and increase in severity from DEFCON 5 (least severe) to DEFCON 1 (most severe) to match varying military situations.
-Defcon 1
Everything went under lock-down, and then China took aggressive action on an entire slew of areas. Obviously the Chinese intel knew something was up, and had more information about what was going on than what we have been led to believe. China killed the pandemic and stopped it right in it’s tracks.
Imagine that!
But that is only part of the story.
Strange American behavior…
While all this was going on, the American leadership started to act really strange.
The claim that the US Covid-19 response demonstrates that the US can "tolerate casualties" is one of the most asinine statements I have ever read. All that it proves is that the US is shockingly incompetent. Incompetence is not generally viewed as a strength.
Posted by: David | Nov 18 2020 21:55 utc | 33
[1] Don’t you all think that it was weird that Donald Trump and the CDC would insist on no one wearing masks?
[2] Don’t you think that it was really strange that he wanted groups of people to conjugate together? It’s almost like he wanted everyone to get sick.
Wasn’t that strange?
[3] Don’t you think this was strange when there were just terrible videos out of China? With people having seizures, dropping dead on the elevator, and collapsing when they took their children to school? With guys going into convulsions, and women passing out on buses, and little children being rushed to hospitals.
[4] Yet, Donald Trump and the CDC told everyone to stop watching videos out of China (Tictok), and meet together and do not wear a mask.
Don’t you think it was strange?
Yes. Trump unleashed the COVID-19A all over America. And yes he also gave it to his allies in Europe precisely so that everyone would get the “safe” virus. He wanted everyone to be exposed to the “safe” virus. Notice how the Military Allies of the United States, all of them followed the Trump “ok to wear a mask” narrative.
How nice of him…
He wanted American-friendly nations to be immune. He wanted everyone to get the “safe” light virus COVID-19A. He wanted his allies to get immune by getting the “safe” virus, while his enemies got the bad and dangerous virus.
He wanted Chinese-friendly nations to get the bad version of the virus COVID-19B.
America & Allies = Herd Immunity with “safe” COVID-19A
China & Enemies = Saturated with the dangerous COVID-19B
Map of the strains of the COVID-19 and the likely transmission paths. This map describes eight viral variations. But you can easily see that COVID-19B, the very lethal and deadly version hit China hard. The “light” version, the COVID-19A hit America, and Donald Trump wanted everyone to get it to obtain herd immunity.
SO what is going on today?
Of course, you all can disagree.
[1] You can believe that China was "lucky", and America was "unlucky".
[2] And that all the coincidences surrounding this speculation is just coincidences and nothing more.
[3] Bad location for the outbreak.
[4] Bad timing of the outbreak.
[5] Bad coincidence that the key attributes of COVID are all patented in the Untied States.
Just coincidences...
The entire time while China was under lock-down, people were dying, and the anti-China propaganda campaign was reaching a fever pitch, what was going on?
Coronavirus Strain
Nations affected
R0
Covid-19A (safe)
USA and Allies
0.1%
Covid-19B (lethal)
China, Iran, North Korea
10-15 %
But America is NOT that “Shining house of the hill”. It is not run by strong leadership, and skilled and talented workers. It is something else, and the idea that America can allow everyone to obtain “herd immunity” is a foolish play.
0.1% of the population of the USA = 32.8 million people dead.
And sure, this is nothing compared to what Trump expected to hit China…
15% of the Chinese population = 195 million people dead.
But China is not what the neocons thought, and neither is the United States. And what is raging around the world is nothing like what was initially intended. It has become something else…
And now, in America it is chaos. Everyone is scrambling and confused. Some believe that Trump is right. Get the COVID-19A “Safe” it will be just a minor cold. The flu is far worse. While others are watching people die, and collapse. They think that Trump is an idiot Protests are going on. Shootings, and disruptions in food supply. People are unemployed and people are disobeying the need to self-isolate.
But it’s not just that…
The Chinese are avoiding fighting.
That is America's strength. The United States is used to creating the "playing field" where they define the players, the place, the rules of engagement, and the terms of success. America is used to selecting the place. America is used to selecting the time. America is used to selecting the weapons. America is used to selecting the battles.
China does not play that game.
So China is redefining the narrative, and performing a “run around” all of the neocon’s efforts.
Like this for the “pro-democracy” riots by the CIA/NED…
(this) just came in on Whatsapp from a chauvinistic Chinese friend.
Does this also mark the end of Deng's 8 Coastal SEZs? https://youtu.be/zcY3er58aRA
This video conveys the news: *SEPARATE FOREVER* : HONG KONG
China has just announced that Hainan Island which is 35x larger than Hong Kong will be established as the new largest Free Trade/Free Tax centre to replace Hong Kong.
The Chinese leadership used the Hong Kong riots which lasted for months, made Hong Kong no longer prosperous. They intend to let it be collapse, and replaced with: Shenzhen from the North and Hainan in the South.
The special area of Hong Kong was removed. It is now only a city from the Guangdong Province.
Eventually, all foreign intelligence services will disband automatically, America and Britain will be confused, all their efforts have been in vain and wasted.
...
Strategic! Hong Kong status will be diminished from special to just a city of China and replaced by Hainan 🇨🇳🇭🇰
China is still keen to emulate Singapore which is cited in this video
Today, the NED / NID agents have been rounded up and interrogated. Here’s a particularity interesting take-down of a CIA agent…
All the protests, the violence, the riots and everything all stopped. How?
Anyone who cashes out the money dished out by the NED/NID for any reason has their Social Security balance zeroed out….forever!
Anyone arrested, caught on video or associated with the protest in any way have their social standing reduced to “black level”. They cannot buy plane tickets, use public transportation, or use banks. Schooling might be forbidden for their children, and all legal activity relating to normal day-to-day transactions will have to be done in-person in the office, not using APPs.
All HK protestors in HK are now being moved to Chinese mainland prisons for “punishment labors” and “organ harvesting”.
Yes. We are in World War III
Today the world is wracked with three strains of a bio-weapon designed, concocted in America and unleashed by the neocons in the Trump administration.
COVID-19A – Safe. Designed to grant immunity to Americans.
COVID-19B – Lethal designed to kill Chinese.
COVID-19C – A variation of B, designed to target Iran and North Korea.
And now…
COVID-19A Lethal
Oh, and by the way. none of the viruses in the COVID-19 family grants immunity. Once you get a mild strain, you are more prone to get a more dangerous strain.
The world is FUCKED.
It is FUBAR
And so, it’s all a complete FUBAR. Yup. That’s just exactly how and why you know that it is an American military operation. Name one American military operation that was not FUBAR. Name one!
Military slang from WWII, fubar is an acronym for "fucked up beyond all recognition ". " the house was completely fubar."
-Urban Dictionary: fubar
It’s a military operation. That is for certain.
No it is not yet “hot”, but it sure is “warm”. People are dying and more people have died so far in America that during the Vietnam war. Just because nuclear weapons are not yet in play does not mean that it is not going to happen.
China realizes this.
Here's China's unofficial response via this Global Times editorial. I wish I could reproduce the art at the editorial's header as it's very spot-on:
"There is no new wording in the report, which can be seen as a collection of malicious remarks from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other anti-China US politicians and senators. Right now, only a little more than 60 days are left for the current US administration. An official from the State Department explained that the report is not meant to constrain the next US administration.
But the fact is the Department of State fears that the Biden administration will adjust US-China relations, and the release of the report is part of their efforts to consolidate the current extreme anti-China path.
"But most Chinese scholars who have read the report believe it is an insult to Kennan by labeling the report as Kennan-style. Kennan, then US charge d'affaires in Moscow, sent an 8,000-word telegram to the Department of State detailing his views on the Soviet Union. At least, there was no special political motive in Kennan's report. But the latest report is trying to leave a legacy for the extreme anti-China policy adopted by the Trump administration and fawning on Pompeo, which is evil in essence.
"The impulsive and capricious governing style of Donald Trump leaves sufficient room for politicians like Pompeo to give free play to their ambitions. The Department of State has become the governmental organ that has the most serious clashes with China, outperforming the CIA and the Department of Defense.
"Diplomats are supposed to be communicators, but Pompeo and his team have chilled the communication atmosphere with China. In the China direction, today's US Department of State can close its door.
"Surrounded by such deep hostility and prejudice toward China and the wild ambition of the secretary of state, how could the Department of State's Office of Policy Planning make out anything objective about China? Their observation ability, cautious attitude toward research, and sense of responsibility for history have been severely squeezed. They are just currying favor from their seniors and manipulating extreme paths, pretending to be 'thoughtful....'
"Chinese diplomatic and academic circles look down upon the Pompeo team, which lacks professionalism, and acts like a group of gangsters suddenly taking official positions. They not only have messed things up, but also hope to build their nonsense as legacy. Pompeo's choice of opportunists like Miles Yu as advisor in particular has increased Chinese people's doubts over the 'amateurism' and 'immorality' of the Pompeo team's China policy....
"The US' China policy is very much like 'drunk driving' internally while on the international stage it's like sailing against the current." [My Emphasis]
There's not much more to add aside for asking barflies to read the entire editorial.
Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 18 2020 20:12 utc | 13
Neocons view war as necessary
These neocons do not give up. They have a near religious vision of the world where America controls everything and everyone. Where American law is obeyed everywhere and where “American greatness” defines the human race.
Many of Trump’s followers view his role as near religious. They believe that God and Jesus are blessing all of his actions and that he can do no wrong.
Heck!
They even made a coin to commemorate this event, or at least to keep the Wuhan bat-eating Chinese narrative alive.
What? You don’t think that this is all part of a long-term, well-thought-out plan? Something that has been on-going for years. (At least one year to design and produce a new coin, with 2.5 years being the norm.)
What? You don’t think that a narcissist like Trump wouldn’t create some type of monument or edifice to record his glories? Like a “special coin”?
What can I say?
.
Do you think that this entire bio-weapons attack was not planned and unleashed upon China as part of a long-term plan?
Donald Trump has a coin collection of all of his battles. Check it out, and guess which coin has been recently added to this collection?
Can you possibly be serious?
The signs are everywhere. Just little drips and drabs by the spooks involved in this activity. Check out this vehicle that was abandoned in the parking lot of an Airport in Australia BEFORE the CNY eve outbreak.
This vehicle was abandoned (who abandons a BMW?) in an Australian parking lot BEFORE the Coronavirus is officially named as “COVID-19”.
Just another coincidence…
Vehicle abandoned in an Australian parking lot BEFORE the COVID-19 outbreak in China on Chinese CNY. Remember, that it takes a minimum of six months to make a custom license plate in Australia. COVID-19 wasn’t even officially named that until after March 2020.
.
The time-table is still in play.
The Time Table is still active.
Even though things are not going well in America now, the time-table for the grand plan is still alive and active. Some of the things, taken alone are meaningless. But taken as a whole in it’s entirety, show a very dangerous picture of events.
Trump, right on schedule, declared himself a “war President”.
Right on schedule sent two complete invasion carrier groups to the South China Sea.
Right on schedule, military leadership teams went into underground secure facilities.
Right on schedule, “low yield field nuclear weapons” were placed on military forces in the South Pacific.
Right on schedule, Australia military is working with American military “advisers”.
Right on schedule, Trump put Americans on notice to leave China and return to the USA.
Right on Schedule, all air travel between China and the USA came to an end.
Right on Schedule, demands for seizing Chinese assets and defaulting on Chinese loans.
Trump made “arrangements” for a transition of power if he were to lose the election. I have no idea what that means, but if the players like Pompeo are still in office, then that means that the situation will only get worse. They will continue their plans.
Right on schedule, FIVE complete carrier battle groups were repositioned in the North Pacific for “exercises”.
Right on schedule, TWO additional complete carrier battle groups are in transit to the South China Sea.
Right on schedule, the UK is going to add their carrier battle group to the American carrier groups in the South China Sea.
All of this is worrisome.
Eight (8x) carrier battle groups are hanging out all around China.
Each carrier group with two carrier. A large and a "small" carrier. Three in the south China Sea (one British) and five near Guam. Each group has it's own attachment of Marine assault forces and landing craft.
Nothing good can come of this.
Expect some “heat”
I expect things to go “hot” sometime between 2020 and 2023. And when I mean “hot”, I mean a shooting war with America making the first action. It would be some structured military action against either China or Russia, and it involving “safe” low-yield nuclear weapons.
And…
And, China responding… to an exceptionally vulnerable America, upon America soil.
Don't ever mistakenly believe that this event will be limited to the South China Sea. It won't. Any military action against China will result in military action against Americans inside of America.
To think otherwise is wishful thinking and a rookie mistake.
America is really fragile. If you think it’s a mess now, imagine what global thermonuclear war would be like…
A nuclear strike on Mono Lake will render all of California into a radioactive dry desert wasteland for centuries.
A nuclear strike on New York City would destroy all of American industry as all of the “big” American companies are “public” and listed on the stock exchange. Wipe out the stock exchange, and you create a situation where no one can get paid. Companies all over America will collapse.
A nation where it’s every man for himself, and where over half the population has guns cannot be considered to unify under a national emergency. COVID-19 taught us that.
This is for certain if Trump gets a second term of office.
A slightly better situation is that he is out of office and a new President takes over. Still, the situation is still in play and many things are set in motions that cannot be stopped…
In any event…
I also predict that it will not go as any one expects, and that America will be devastated, the globe would we completely turned on it’s head, and both America and China would suffer.
America, a nation that never experienced a “real” war on it’s soil, would be reduced to a balkanized nightmare similar to modern day Yemen, only without potable water, and reliable sources of electricity.
China, long used to war, strife, and conflict for the last 5000 years, would simply dust themselves off and rebuild all over again.
Those nations that picked the wrong nation to align itself with would face similar hardships. Which is why I strongly advocate 100% neutrality in Geo-political efforts. If a nation is adjacent to one of the two powers, their smartest move would be to align with their closest neighbor.
Let’s hope that this prediction does not transpire.
Other opinions
Or, I could just have an over active imagination. Right?
To paraphrase some of the responses I have read…
Everyone knows that America would never even contemplate such a thing. NEVER. After all, it’s currently fighting eight wars, has 800 military bases and 14 carrier battle groups. America is way too busy to devote time and effort to fighting China. Why fight China when it’s much easier to fight in Somalia, Yemen and Syria?
And Trump and his advisors are fine God-fearing folk. Trump holds “prayer meetings” in the Oval Office. With a God-fearing leader, Pompeo and Bolton would never advocate a war against China. The idea that a neocon wants war is well…silly.
There is no such thing as The Thucydides Trap.It’s historical gibberish.
Trump wants a fair trade arrangement where everyone wins, and the Chinese are just evil, bad and eat bat soup. They are filthy foul liars. They steal and are the scourge of the planet.
With my personal duty out of the way of attacking the trolls and hopefully driving them back under the bridges from whence they came, I would like to ask if there is any way to "strip a country of its sovereign immunity" without a war?
I mean, isn't that the whole point of wars? To eliminate or protect a nation's sovereignty? Isn't trying to eliminate another country's sovereignty by just passing a law kinda like trying to simplify math by passing a law to make π=3 ? If you want your sovereignty-stripping law to have any meaning, then you have to enforce it, and that enforcement will look a whole lot like a war, regardless of what you want to call it.
Unlike Americans the Chinese are not stupid. They have long known of the approach of the obligatory scene of the Thucydides Trap and have been preparing for it as best they can (which happens to be some quite good preparations).
...
I'll let the empire's trolls in on a little secret: The Chinese can lose every single ship they send to the "Battle of the Xisha Islands" and still win the war. That's because industrial capacity is important in a major war.
-Posted by: William Gruff | May 1 2020 15:48 utc | 33
It’s like a baseball game…
Yes, the USA can take their itemized list, and pencil off the playing field. And China will sway in the wind for a while. But you know what?
China owns the ball the bat, the gloves, the players, the field, the dugouts, and the fencing. While the USA is so proud to have control over the score, it will be China that will control the game. And no wishful thinking is going to change the reality that you need people, factories and skills to make things.
Wall street does not make anything.
Diversity Officers do not create, build, repair, or structure things.
Lawyers and bankers do not put food on tables.
Bureaucrats do not provide public transportation, or hospital care.
Thinking that you are accomplishing something by writing about it, comparing it in a spreadsheet, or endlessly debating it on social media is meaningless in the overall scheme of things. Real productive nations make physical things.
And China…
Hate it or love it, is a nation that makes and creates, and builds things. The United States, is a nation that destroys things, then indexes and categorizes the destruction.
The future of the entire world belongs to the builders. Not the destroyers.
Update – 12MAY20
Apparently, since America launched the bio-weapon attack on the Chinese New Year Holiday, and China was forced to go into DEFCON ONE, it has stayed at that state or military readiness.
There is no evidence that the Chinese military has “stood down” or relaxed their defensive posture.
As such, Chinese high-yield nuclear weapons (SLBM with MIRV warheads) have been positioned all around the United States and ready to strike back were any additional neocon military “events” were to take place. This is reasonable. What is unreasonable is to think that China would not take any subsequent action.
Which brings me to this report…
"Reports coming in from some of my former colleagues during my years with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force indicate the US Military is concerned there may be a submerged Chinese missile submarine directly off the coast of San Diego, CA as of abut 4:00 PM eastern US time, Monday, May 11."
-Hall Turner
Ya don’t think?
Gosh, how stupid can these people be?
If you launch a WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction) against a major power (COVID-19B Lethal), you can most certainly expect them to react. Or do you believe that they are political idiots with the brain of a snail? Do you think that they will continue to just “take the hits”? Do you think that they will go “protest” at the UN?
Update – 13MAY20
Messages are being sent to Trump.
China fires its latest underwater nuclear missile into spotlight with science prize. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force is developing its third-generation SLBM JL-3, with a range of over 12,000km (7,450 miles), which would allow it to hit the United States if the missile were launched from the Chinese coast. https://lnkd.in/gE4MG7F
Update – 23MAY20
Trump is not listening to the messages though.
The Trump administration has discussed whether to conduct the first U.S. nuclear test explosion since 1992 in a move that would have far-reaching consequences for relations with other nuclear powers and reverse a decades-long moratorium on such actions, said a senior administration official and two former officials familiar with the deliberations.
Ai! It's like a bratty snot-nosed kid playing around with a loaded gun.
The US Navy has mobilized it’s attack subs against China. I guess the four lone “boomer” subs are too much of a threat.
The Pacific Fleet Submarine Force took the unusual step this month of announcing that all of its forward-deployed subs were simultaneously conducting "contingency response operations " at sea in the Western Pacific--downplaying the notion that Navy forces have been hampered by COVID-19.
The sub force said the missions were mounted in support of the Pentagon's "free and open Indo-Pacific " policy aimed at countering China's expansionism in the South China Sea.
At least seven submarines, and likely more--including all four Guam-based attack submarines, the San Diego-based USS Alexandria and multiple Hawaii-based vessels--are part of the effort.
The action also highlights the Pentagon's desire to be flexible and unpredictable in "great power " competition with China and Russia.
"Our operations are a demonstration of our willingness to defend our interests and freedoms under international law, " Rear Adm. Blake Converse, Pacific sub force commander, who is based at Pearl Harbor, said in a May 8 release.
Attack submarines maintain an outsize stealth capability to sink ships with torpedoes, fire Tomahawk cruise missiles and conduct covert surveillance while keeping adversaries guessing their location.
The Navy recently has maintained a flotilla of warships in the Western Pacific as a show of force and proof that COVID-19 hasn't significantly degraded its capabilities, with the United States and China long trading barbs over military activities in the South China Sea and increasingly so over each other's pandemic response.
China has been accused of intensifying its occupation of man-made islands and bullying other nations in the region while much of the world has been focused on the pandemic.
Geopolitical intelligence platform Stratfor said that the U.S. and China have maintained a "robust operational pace in the South China Sea " amid heightening tensions and COVID-19--signs that point to continued escalation after the virus wanes.
When the Navy advertises the presence of its usually unseen submarines, it's often to make a point with an adversary. The Navy released a photo of the Los Angeles-class sub Alexandria transiting Apra Harbor in Guam on May 5.
As the U.S. military addresses COVID-19 at home, "we remain focused on our national security missions around the world, " Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the same day.
"Many countries have turned inward to recover from the pandemic, and in the meantime our strategic competitors are attempting to exploit this crisis to their benefit at the expense of others, " Esper said.
He accused the Chinese Communist Party of ramping up a "disinformation campaign " to shift blame for the virus and burnish its image. All the while, "we continue to see aggressive behavior by the PLA (People's Liberation Army ) in the South China Sea, from threatening a Philippine navy ship to sinking a Vietnamese fishing boat and intimidating other nations from engaging in offshore oil and gas development."
Esper said two Navy ships conducted freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea the week before "to send a clear message to Beijing that we continue to protect freedom of navigation and commerce for all nations large and small."
The guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill conducted a "FONOP " in the Spratly Islands, and the destroyer USS Barry sailed twice through the Taiwan Strait and through the Paracel Islands in disputed territory that China claims as its own.
"These provocative acts by the U.S. side ... have seriously violated China's sovereignty and security interests, deliberately increased regional security risks and could easily trigger an unexpected incident, " the South China Morning Post quoted a Chinese military command saying after the Barry's Paracel passage.
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has been sidelined in Guam since late March after experiencing an outbreak of the new coronavirus among its 4, 800-member crew.
U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor has been quick to note the ongoing deployment of other assets in the region, including transits of the South China Sea by the littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords, the destroyer USS Rafael Peralta sailing in the East China Sea and the destroyer USS McCampbell passing through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday.
These are not to be viewed as a threat to the Chinese navy. Instead they are a threat to any one that ships products from China. This threat is that the United States will start sinking all cargo and container traffic out of China. As (until the BRI is completed) the entire world relies on Chinese sea container shipments.
Update June 2020
China has sped up it’s production of nuclear launcher subs, and has greatly increased it’s production of hyper-velocity missiles.
2020-6-8 · They are also armed with Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles, wire-guided and wake-homing torpedoes and mines. Perhaps of greater concern, the Chinese have already test-fired an emerging JL-3 nuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missile with a reported range of more that 5,600 miles, according to a 2018 CSIS report. The missile is solid fueled.
Update 18JUL20
Now the Trump White-house is pushing the “America is invincible narrative”.
American media are telling the world that Aircraft carriers are unsinkable, and that America with British support is going to “kick some ass” and “teach China a lesson”…
The sad thing is that Trump and Pompeo has purposely ignored internal voices warning that China has achieved peer-level capabilities and that the American military (while enormous) has greatly eroded in capability since the cold war. They warn that China is not someone that you casually attack and not expect some painful retribution.
China is a serious, serious nation that does not play.
Update 25JUL20
Trump STEPS UP the “game”.
Pompeo makes a speech that pretty much says that everything that America did to suppress China did not work. That the old techniques must end, and a series of “new” techniques must begin.
Overall, most of the world, doesn’t feel very comforted by the Pompeo speech.
RTop/ed analysis of Pompeo's China containment policy plan, "The Elements of the China Challenge”:
"Although it is hardly atypical of the President Trump administration, the document is significant because it represents yet another attempt by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to immortalize his Cold War confrontation between the US and China, bind the succeeding administration to it and most strikingly, institutionalize anti-Beijing ideas into American bureaucracy.
"The push against China by the Trump White House is not designed to be a passing phase, but a permanent and defining change of direction, for which this entire term in office has sought to prepare.
This document aims to be a blueprint for long-term ideological struggle and a series of aspirations for maintaining hegemony, an affirmation of priority and a statement that things cannot “go back to normal”. But it makes no guarantee that the US can ever adequately understand China, or that it will succeed in its aims.
"The reference to George F. Kennan in pitching this document is appealing given the historical parallels, but it is not an exact fit and this, in turn, helps shine a light on Pompeo’s own ignorance of China. It might be described in one simple sentence: China is not the Soviet Union and the ideological stakes are not quite the same." [Emphasis Original]
While I'd agree that differences in ideology exist between China and the Outlaw US Empire, it is the Empire that's constructed upon and is living the Big Lie inherent within Neoliberalism, while China continues to perfect its already very efficient system of Collective Libertarianism through its revamped Democratic Centralism. The really big fundamental difference is that China has absolutely no need to lie to its people, whereas the exact opposite's true within the Neoliberal West.
After a lengthy period of public input, the government meets and eventually publishes its 5-year plan of development, which is contained within an even larger plan that's also been devised with public input and once put together is also published for public consumption. And since 2010, all plans have existed within China's UN 2030 Development plan, which is also available to the public.
In a great many respects. China is a more open society than the Outlaw US Empire. Why? Because it doesn't need to lie to its citizens because it fights against the corruption that provides the reason for such lies--China has no Financial Parasitism it must mask from its citizens whereas the Outlaw US Empire is drowning in a massive sea of corruption that is killing it. Clearly, Pompeo wants that to continue.
Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 18 2020 19:59 utc | 7
Further, delusional State Department policy planning paper sees the light.
Axioscalls it a “Kennan-style paper”. In 1946 George Kennan, then Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States to the USSR, wrote his ‘Long Telegram’ that defined U.S. Cold War policy towards the Soviet Union for the next decades. And we all know how that worked out.
But the China paper which the State Department published is not comparable to the ‘Long Telegram’. It is a propaganda piece that reflects the naive views of the outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompous.
Pompous’ premise is that the Chinese people hate the Communist Party of China that runs the country and that China is not a democracy. But that is not what the people of China believe:
Charted below are the survey results from 20 countries, and they illustrate some startling beliefs — not least that 73% of Chinese consider China to be democratic, whereas only 49% of Americans believe the same about the U.S.
Read this thread to find out why that is the case:
On twitter, as a Chinese, the most frequently asked question for me is, why don't you oppose the CPC? Why don't Chinese support western style democracy? Why do Chinese people support President Xi, who has no votes? Now, I'm going to tell them why.（1/N）
The recommendations of the State Department paper listed by Axios are not practical steps but pure ideology:
The blueprint: The paper lays out “ten tasks” for the U.S. to accomplish.
Promoting constitutional government and civil society at home.
Maintaining the world’s strongest military.
Fortifying the rules-based international order.
Reevaluating its alliance system.
Strengthening its alliance system and creating new international organizations to promote democracy and human rights.
Cooperating with China when possible and constraining Beijing when appropriate.
Educating Americans about the China challenge.
Train a new generation of public servants who understand great-power competition with China.
Reforming the U.S. education system to help students understand the responsibility of citizenship in a complex information age.
Championing the principles of freedom in word and in deed.
Note especially the points 7 to 10.
They have nothing to do with China. They call for domestic propaganda, more domestic propaganda and even more domestic propaganda. How brainwashing and stupidifying one’s own people is supposed to challenge China is beyond me.
Update 17AUG20
Military action on the South-West Tier of the BRI.
The Port of Beirut poses the biggest geostrategic threat to American power projection because China’s Silk Road is fast creeping towards the docks at Beirut Port. The US, having recently forced Israel to cancel its Haifa rail contract with China, has dampened the Chinese advance in the eastern Mediterranean, and what remains now in the path of the US is the Beirut Port. The US must either invade it to block the Chinese geostrategic mission creep, or else destroy it.[MORE]
Seems that Trump authorized the use of 6kt mini-nuke to destroy the port of Beirut. This was conducted by aircraft of the Israel Air Force, and they apparently used two missiles.
Gabriel anti ship missile.
Israeli Delilah missile carrying a 6kt mini-nuke.
Radiation readings in Europe has confirmed that a nuclear warhead was used.
Radiation detected from a nuclear explosion.
Trump has admitted to participation and direction of this attack. But he did not confess to using nuclear weapons.
This effort puts a immediate pause on the Chinese Belt and Road initiative with a port on the Mediterranean sea.
Update 25AUG20
Trump and Pompeo are pushing, pushing, pushing…
China has gone from “Most Favored Trading Partner” status in 2016 under President Obama…
… to an “Enemy of America” under trump in 2020. It’s a 180 degree turn in a global relationship.
US lawmakers have introduced a bill to change the way the federal government refers to the leader of China. The ‘Name the Enemy Act’ would require that official US government documents instead refer to the head of state according to his or her role as head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This implies the new bill stands to prohibit the use of the term “president”.
-President No More? US Moves to Ban Chinese Leader Xi Jinping’s Title
And China, being what it is, is not blind to what is going on…
Here are some of the key points.
1. On the trade war front, Beijing won’t shut down US businesses already operating in China. But companies which want to enter the market in finance, information technology, healthcare and education services will not be approved.
2. Beijing won’t dump all its overwhelming mass of US Treasuries in one go, but – as it already happens – divestment will accelerate. Last year, that amounted to $100 billion. Up to the end of 2020, that could reach $300 billion.
3. The internationalization of the yuan, also predictably, will be accelerated. That will include configuring the final parameters for clearing US dollars through the CHIPS Chinese system – foreseeing the incandescent possibility Beijing might be cut off from SWIFT by the Trump administration or whoever will be in power at the White House after January 2021.
4. On what is largely interpreted across China as the “full spectrum war” front, mostly Hybrid War, the PLA has been put into Stage 3 alert – and all leaves are canceled for the rest of 2020. There will be a concerted drive to increase all-round defense spending to 4% of GDP and accelerate the development of nuclear weapons. Details are bound to emerge during the Central Committee meeting in October.
5. The overall emphasis is on a very Chinese spirit of self-reliance, and building what can be defined as a national economic “dual circulation” system: the consolidation of the Eurasian integration project running in parallel to a global yuan settlement mechanism.
Inbuilt in this drive is what has been described as “to firmly abandon all illusions about the United States and conduct war mobilization with our people. We shall vigorously promote the war to resist US aggression (…) We will use a war mindset to steer the national economy (…) Prepare for the complete interruption of relations with the US.”
It’s unclear as it stands if these are only trial balloons disseminated across Chinese public opinion or decisions reached at the “invisible” Beidaihe. So all eyes will be on what kind of language this alarming configuration will be packaged when the Central Committee presents its strategic planning in October. Significantly, that will happen only a few weeks before the US election.
It’s all about continuity
All of the above somewhat mirrors a recent debate in Amsterdam on what constitutes the Chinese “threat” to the West. Here are the key points.
1. China constantly reinforces its hybrid economic model – which is an absolute rarity, globally: neither totally publicly owned nor a market economy.
2. The level of patriotism is staggering: once the Chinese face a foreign enemy, 1.4 billion people act as one.
3. National mechanisms have tremendous force: absolutely nothing blocks the full use of China’s financial, material and manpower resources once a policy is set.
4. China has set up the most comprehensive, back to back industrial system on the planet, without foreign interference if need be (well, there’s always the matter of semiconductors to Huawei to be solved).
China plans not only in years, but in decades. Five year plans are complemented by ten year plans and as the meeting chaired by Xi showed, 15 year plans. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is in fact a nearly 40-year plan, designed in 2013 to be completed in 2049.
And continuity is the name of the game – when one thinks that the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, first developed in 1949 and then expanded by Zhou Enlai at the Bandung conference in 1955 are set in stone as China’s foreign policy guidelines.
-China: everything proceeding according to plan
You all can buy all the guns and ammo you want. You can read all the social media that you are able to. You can stock up on food and toilet paper…
… but you are wasting your time unless you invest in iodine pills, and Geiger counters. Any attack on either Russia or China will result in almost all American cities destroyed in large, enormous nuclear explosions.
Update 26AUG20
China launches four of it’s “Aircraft Carrier Killer Missiles” into the South China Sea. DoD can confirm that the Chinese military launched four medium-range missiles Wednesday from mainland China,” a defense official said.”The missiles impacted in the South China Sea between Hainan Island and the Paracel Islands,” the official added. “The launch appears to have been part of a previously announced exercise.”
A Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Wednesday 2SEP20 at 12:03 a.m. The test launch used an unarmed missile that traveled over 4,000 miles, at a speed of more than 15,000 mph.
Apparently, the China Government agrees with my appraisal. From a message group that I belong to…
Chinese propaganda getting good. Unlike West propaganda, Chinese includes evidence. exactly consistent with Uriah Heep's version.
Thanks Jeff, but Kevin it may be a conspiracy that Heep told it in real time and official docu youtubed 8 months later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEo3qk-4yx8
On September 19, 2020, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) published the Provisions on the Unreliable Entity List. That was one day after the U.S. Commerce Department announced its ban on American users downloading the Chinese app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok.
This article takes corresponding measures against the following actions of FOREIGN ENTITIES:
1) Endanger China’s national sovereignty security, or development interests 2) Violating the principles of normal market transactions, interrupting normal transactions with Chinese entities, or adopting discriminatory measures against Chinese entities, seriously damaging the legal rights of the entity.
3OCT20 Update.
After an entire year in blaming China for the coronavirus. Donald Trump (after a very bad public debate with his election opponent) announced that he has the COVID-19. And was flown to a hospital within a thirty minute drive of Fort Detrick (the presumptive point of origin of the COVID-19 and all American bio-weapons programs).
Minutes before the announcement, American “doomsday planes” were launched. As they control communication with the SLBM MIRV’ s that are housed in the “boomer” submarines around the world.
A look at the bigger picture is in order. Forget about all the “details”. Just name another President (any President) that [1] not only sent three assault carrier groups to the Chinese coast (with a total of five aircraft carriers), [2] launched a series of viral attacks simultaneously with [3] a hysterically-active anti-China propaganda campaign, and [4] went after Chinese industry to the extent that he did, [5] only to have nuclear ships, subs, planes, and ICBMs on active on-call status.
Name one.
If this is not a preparation for a full-scale nuclear war, I do not know what is.
12 OCT 20 Update.
It appears that President Trump might not win reelection. And as a result (I assume) there has been a flood of articles that basically state that no matter who wins the 2020 election, the American foreign policy will not change. It’s a dominant narrative leading up to the election date.
“Biden will continue the Anti-China policies of Trump.”
Imagine that!
NIKKEI is a 100% American State Department media outlet designed to manipulation discourse in the Asian-Pacific Rim. It is down line from Mike Pompeo.
.
Seriously! This is absurd!
Yet, why all the articles? Really?
The latest article from the Moon Over Alabama is a piece titled “U.S. Elections Do Not Change Its Foreign Policies”. It’s part of a nine week long period of articles that pretty much posits that the hybrid-war with China will continue whether Trump is in Office or Biden. The articles argue the same points made by others. Over and over. It’s all a rehash.
Screen Shot.
The MoA is perhaps the most logical. But all in all they are just nonsense. And they actually are NONSENSE. These articles assume a third grade reading comprehension, with a knowledge of recent history that evaporates within months.
Listen up boys and girls…
Elections DO change American Foreign Policy.
Under Bush, and Obama China has “Most Favored Nation Status”. Today, the status with China is “Enemy” (especially considering the names of the bills being pushed through congress. Namely the “Name the Enemy act”.)
That’s a pretty big change. I would say. Wouldn’t you?
But according to all the articles… “American foreign policy does not change when the presidency changes”. Yet, when Trump was elected the Foreign Polices all changed drastically. In fact, NOT ONE SINGLE POLICY stayed the same.
So…
… what is the true and real purpose of this nonsense?
To convince people that nothing is going to change if Biden is elected? When the fact and truth is the exact opposite. As we used to say in the States “Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.”
My points.
[1] This entire premise is a big bunch of nonsense.
[2] This premise is being promoted in all of the media; mainstream, alt-right, alt-left.
[3] Our most treasured sources for alternative journalism have been tainted and corrupted to a point where they too, now regurgitate the ‘approved” government narratives.
Think!
Think people!
So for a fun exercise, can anyone tell me which foreign polices that Trump DID NOT CHANGE. As to provide some validity to this onslaught narrative? Because if all of these articles are correct, then there must be evidence to base it all on. So, what policies did President Trump leave intact?
The answer is; NONE. He tore up of every single policy that Biden and Obama worked together on. Those that the did not tear up, he openly flaunted and violated. But now, amazingly, Biden is going to embrace the Trump neocon methodology?
Remember boys and girls, what’s the purpose of having a “democracy” if you cannot change the leadership when you are unhappy with their policies?
What’s the point if both political parties have the same point of view and the same policies?
What kind of government do you have then?
Here’s a infographic showing the differences in the two political parties.
The differences in the two political parties.
Tracking this narrative on my LinkedIN account pretty much indicates that the (American government) ‘Bot’s are promoting this narrative. The exact same venues that had the ‘bot attacks on China all throughout 2020.
That Biden would embraced Donald Trump anti-China stance and policies.
That Biden did not care that Trump tore up every one of the polices and treaties that he developed in the previous 8 years of the Obama administration.
That there are no changes in policy during an election. That democracies do not change polices and elections have no no effect in policy changes.
I cannot fully understand why the Trump Administration is promoting this narrative right now before the election, unless [1] it expects to lose, and [2] is trying to create a “fall-back position” where the neocons can argue that…
"Biden MUST continue the Trump anti-China policies as it was what the American people expect."
Never the less, the 2020 election will see drastic changes away from the Trump Administration neocon “war Hawk” ultimatums, to a much more balanced and cooperative foreign policy. The Republican party are “war hawks”, with a very small and dangerous group known as neocons that LIVE FOR WAR, and that is who is running the Trump White House. The Democrat party are “doves” that seek consensus and agreements. To believe that somehow Trump’s neocon administration has fundamentally changed the nature of American political discourse is delusional.
After Trump withdrew from the World Health Organization — in protest of what he claim was a bias toward China — Biden this summer pledged to rejoin the U.N.'s health agency on his first day in office. Biden is a “globalist at heart,” wrote Natasha Kassam, a research fellow at Sydney’s Lowy Institute political think tank, in the Guardian.
-MSN
In truth, we can see that many (if not all) of the Trump Administration policies will end, be reversed or modified beyond recognition. All these stories out of the American media are partial and half-truths. Biden will need to deal with the Chinese situation. Primarily because Trump has made such a mess of things, and China is on the rise as a ascending power. Biden will need to sort out Americas role in this rise, for good or bad. But hopefully one that isn’t as contentious as Trumps has been.
Although transitions of power can always include abrupt changes, the shift from Trump to Biden - from one president who sought to undermine established norms and institutions to another who has vowed to restore the established order - will be among the most startling in American history.
Biden's top advisers have spent months quietly working on how best to implement his agenda, with hundreds of transition officials preparing to get to work inside various federal agencies. They have assembled a book filled with his campaign commitments to help guide their early decisions.
Biden is planning to set up a coronavirus task force on Monday, in recognition that the global pandemic will be the primary issue that he must confront. The task force, which could begin meeting within days, will be co-chaired by former surgeon general Vivek Murthy and David Kessler, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner.
But there has also been a recognition of those around him that he may have to lean more on executive actions that he had once hoped. He can reorient various federal agencies and regulations, and he can adopt a different posture on the world stage.
-CHRON
Fake anti-China ‘bots and accounts are being discovered, rooted out, and removed from industrial and career websites. This is from LinkedIN…
Series of fake identities posting anti-China narratives throughout all of 2020.
15OCT20 Update
American “big data” are busy manipulating and massaging all data to make America look strong, powerful and healthy. This is being caught in bits and pieces, here and there. USA media will not cover it. I assume compliance.
Well…
This is obviously a fabrication. If this were true all the global stock markets would show signs of serious collapse. But they didn’t. So why is the data being revised backwards? The only thing that I can think of is to make America appear healthier than it actually is, economically.
As far as I am concerned, all data from the United States and England are subject to the need for careful review. I cannot help but question it’s validity. And you shouldn’t either.
Here’s another example, from the same source,…
According to this, the United States is the best prepared. And China is just so-so prepared. This was written in 2020, but used 2019 data, while the United States was absolutely floundering from the COVID-19, and China was successfully returning to normal after it dealt with the pandemic.
16OCT20 Update
A second new virus (perhaps another) COVID has hit China, middle of October.
It will probably be named COVID-20 in a few months. It is NOT a variation of COVID-19, as a “second wave”. It is a completely new, and completely different virus. By all reports it is much worse than COVID-19. More lethal. More contagious. More dangerous.
It is being handled differently in different regions and provinces.
Latest news in China is sudden lock downs of all restaurants and public venues starting last night at 10PM. This is for the tier one cities. This will be for a minimum of two weeks. Military is still on DEFCON ONE, of course, but the militia are notified to stand ready.
A different type of COVID is apparently breaking out in China. It is unlike the COVID-19, as it was a alpha genome, and this is a beta genome. What ever the fuck that means. I think it means pineapples and toasters.
It's not a modified staring of COVID-19 but instead a BRAND NEW virus.
This NEW and UNUSUAL virus is apparently attacking both humans and pigs. It causes violent diarrhea and vomiting, and then your lungs fill up with fluid, it turns to cement and you die.
Middle of October 2020.
A totally new virus attacks China.
Stand by. It’s too early to do anything about all this. All residences are in scanning mode. Masks are back on. Public establishments (in certain tier one cities) are shut down for two weeks. Military is still on alert. Militia are called on reserve status.
American media is clueless.
17OCT20 Update
From MoA. It discusses the fall-back positions (since the suppression of China) failed. Here, the concentration is on the QUAD alliance building. Which is nothing more than an Asian NATO like structure under the control of the US Military.
U.S. Fails To Find Allies For Waging War On China
The U.S. wants to counter China's growing economic and political standing in the world.
The Obama administration had attempted a 'pivot to Asia' by building a low tariff economic zone via the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). It would have excluded China. The Trump administration rejected the TPP and withdrew from it. It launched an economic war against China by increasing tariffs on Chinese products, prohibiting high tech supplies to Chinese manufacturers, and by denying Chinese companies access to its market.
It has also tried to build a military coalition that would help it to threaten China. It revived the 2007-2008 Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and rebranded it as the U.S.-Australia-India-Japan Consultations Quad. The aim was to turn it into an Asian NATO under U.S. command:
The U.S. State Department’s No. 2 diplomat said Monday that Washington was aiming to “formalize” growing strategic ties with India, Japan and Australia in a forum known as “the Quad” — a move experts say is implicitly designed to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region.
“It is a reality that the Indo-Pacific region is actually lacking in strong multilateral structures. They don’t have anything of the fortitude of NATO, or the European Union,”
-U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said in an online seminar on the sidelines of the annual U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum.
“There is certainly an invitation there at some point to formalize a structure like this,” he added.
But it turns out that neither Australia nor Japan nor India have any interest in a hard stand towards China. All look to China as an important trade partner. They know that any conflict with it would cost them dearly.
On October 6 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Tokyo for a meeting with the other foreign ministers of the Quad. He soon found that no one would join him in his militant talk:
In a meeting with foreign ministers from Japan, India and Australia in Tokyo, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged on Tuesday that they strengthen their quartet of democracies to resist an increasingly assertive China.
...
If, as it appeared, Pompeo was pushing other members of the Quad to take the U.S. side in a confrontation with China, he did not score any ringing public endorsements, and his remarks clashed with those of his host. Pompeo aimed straight at the Chinese Communist Party in remarks before the four nations' top diplomats sat down to talk.
"As partners in this Quad, it is more critical now than ever that we collaborate to protect our people and partners from the CCP's exploitation, corruption and coercion," he said.
But Japan's chief government spokesman, Katsunobu Kato, insisted at a press briefing Tuesday:
"This Quad meeting is not being held with any particular country in mind."
Australia and India were similarly reluctant to say anything that would potentially offend China.
Pompeo's initiative has failed.
The former Indian ambassador M. K. Bhadrakumar explains why the Quad won't fly:
China cannot be beaten since, unlike the USSR, it is part of the same global society as the US. Look at the sheer spread of the US-China battlefields — global governance, geoeconomics, trade, investment, finance, currency usage, supply chain management, technology standards and systems, scientific collaboration and so on. It speaks of China’s vast global reach.
This wasn’t the case with USSR.
Above all, China has no messianic ideology to export and prefers to set a model by virtue of its performance. It is not in the business of instigating regime change in other countries, and actually gets along rather well with democracies.
...
The US created the ASEAN but today no Asian security partner wants to choose between America and China. The ASEAN cannot be repurposed to form a coalition to counter China. Thus, no claimant against China in the South China Sea is prepared to join the US in its naval fracas with China.
China has resources, including money, to offer its partners, whereas, the US budget is in chronic deficit and even routine government operations must now be funded with debt. It needs to find resources needed to keep its human and physical infrastructure at levels competitive with those of China and other great economic powers.
Why on earth should India get entangled in this messy affair whose climax is a foregone conclusion?
...
China has no need to fight wars when it is already winning.
The U.S. also tried to incite its European NATO allies to take a stand against China:
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Saturday that China's increasing influence had created a "fundamental shift in the global balance of power" that should not be overlooked. In an interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper, that was released in advance, the Norwegian official said that Beijing had the second-largest defense budget in the world after the United States, and was investing heavily in nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that could reach Europe.
"One thing is clear: China is coming ever closer to Europe's doorstep," he said. "NATO allies must face this challenge together."
That initiative will sink in Europe just as fast as the Quad initiative has sunk in Asia and for the very same reasons. China is not an ideological or military danger to Europe. It is an economic behemoth and relation with it need to be carefully handled. They require respect and talks and not saber rattling.
China has overtaken the U.S. as the EU's biggest trading partner:
In the first seven months of 2020, China surpassed the United States to become the biggest trading partner of the European Union (EU), said Eurostat, the EU's statistics organization.
...
The EU's imports from China increased by 4.9 per cent year-on-year in the January-July period, noted Eurostat. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, the largest economy in the EU, China, Germany's biggest trading partner since 2016, surpassed the United States for the first time in the second quarter of this year to become Germany's largest export market, and Germany's exports to China in July have rebounded almost to last year's level.
It is time for the U.S. to look into a mirror and to awake to reality. It is highly indebted country with a way too expensive but ineffective military. Over the last decades its economic role in the world has continuously declined. The constant militant positions and 'do as we say' attitude has alienated its allies. Without allies the U.S. has no chance to defeat China in any potential conflict.
What the U.S. still could do is to honestly compete with China. But that would require humility, a strong industrial policy and a well paid and competitive work force.
Neither of that is in sight.
So…
The fall-back position, for the fall-back position is to incite riots in Thailand via CIA sponsored NGO’s. Then seize control of the government, and allow American military to use their bases for staging locations in South East Asia.
CIA is really pushing this NGO effort to destabilize Southern Asia as part of Pompeo “new way to deal with China” strategy. Nikkei is a “neocon publication” out of America. It is fully funded by the US State department and run by Mike Pompeo.
China is Thailand’s largest and most important trading partner, its largest foreign direct investor, and its largest source of tourism with more Chinese tourists coming to Thailand each year than all Western nations combined.
Thailand is also hosting one of the key routes of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative with construction already ongoing for high-speed rail that will connect China, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and eventually Singapore.
Finally and perhaps most upsetting for the US is that Thailand has begun replacing its aging US military hardware through a series of major Thai-Chinese arms deals including the purchasing of main battle tanks, other armored vehicles, naval vessels including up to 3 submarines, and jointly-developed arms programs like the DTI-1 multiple rocket launcher system.
Thailand has also recently replaced some of its US-built Blackhawk helicopters with Russian Mi-17V-5’s.
To counter this, the US has mobilized opposition groups and NGOs it has funded in Thailand for years to now demand the current government step down and the nation’s constitution be rewritten, paving the way for US-backed billionaire-led opposition parties of Thaksin Shinawatra and Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit into power. These are opposition parties that have long served US interests in the past and have explicitly promised to roll back Thai-Chinese relations should they take power again.
US NED Was Behind Hong Kong’s Unrest, and Are Now Behind Thailand’s Unrest
The US was indisputably behind the protests in Hong Kong with the political opposition and protest leaders confirmed to be recipients of US government cash via notorious regime change arm, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Many of the protest leaders literally flew to Washington DC or visited the US consulate in Hong Kong to receive aid, directives, and other forms of support.
In Thailand too, virtually every aspect of the protests are funded by the US government.
Worse still is that the US is attempting to stitch these various movements together to form a regional front against Beijing with Thai protest leaders regularly traveling to meet their US-funded counterparts in Hong Kong and Taiwan and vice versa while creating an online army with the help of US-based social media giants to stack public narratives in their favor.
Neocons believe that war is justified as long as it guarantees that America can control the world. Thus, a neocon can see an “enemy” behind every bush, every action, and inside every cell phone APP.
Historically, the original neocons were a small group of mostly Jewish liberal intellectuals who, in the 1960s and 70s, grew disenchanted with what they saw as the American reluctance to spend aggressively on the military. Many of these neocons worked in the 1970s for Democratic Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson, a staunch anti-communist.
Neocon is short for neoconservative, which adds the neo-, or “new,” prefix to conservative. Today, they stand within both American political parties. Arguing in favor of war, conflict and CIA intervention everywhere.
One of the primary characteristics of neocons is the belief that America must rule the world, and maintain that rule by aggressive and free unencumbered use of military might.
Mid-October Update
Apparently, while the United States Navy was conducting “maneuvers” in the South China Sea, with the five carrier assault groups and Marine Landing / Attack forces, as well as with the entire British carrier fleet…
…something else was happening simultaneously.
Well reported in the mainstream press, but no one was putting “two plus two” together. These strange “tictac” shaped UFO’s started to appear and “move freely” all over American military bases inside of America. At THE SAME TIME as the American Navy was “probing the Chinese coastal defenses“.
Whether they are “aliens” or not is a good question.
One thing is for certain, and that is the technology involved in these craft are far up and above (perhaps centuries) more advanced than anything the United States has fielded. They can “pop” into existence out of no-where. They are immune to radar, and thermal signatures. They can accelerate to enormous speeds in a short period of time, and they are equally capable of underwater, air and space travel.
“Chinese Tictac” UFO that was buzzing and moving in and out of American military installations and airbases while the American Naval flotilla was busy probing the Chinese Coasts during the Summer of 2020.
21OCT20 Update
A second; MORE Lethal biological attack hits China in October 2020.
Here in China is a semi-alert status since mid month. Everyone is on alert. Military are on full alert, but work and homes are as normal. The primary difference is that there are hyper-diligent monitoring of temperatures and GPS travel histories.
Not well publicized (inside of America or in any of the main-steam or Alternative media of any type) except for a few paragraphs. There is a brand new, never before seen, absolutely novel in biology, virus.
It’s supposed to be much worse than COVID-19. It attacks both humans and swine.
It’s new, and not a second or third wave of the coronavirus.
Though it is in the same family of viruses as the betacoronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the respiratory illness COVID-19 in humans, the scientists said SADS-CoV is an alphacoronavirus that causes gastrointestinal illness in swine.
China notified the WHO, who put the world on notice.
It’s called SADS-CoV, which is short for “Swine Acute Diarrhea Syndrome Coronavirus” and, yeah, it’s as bad as it sounds. The virus causes severe diarrhea and vomiting and has been especially deadly to young piglets.
Reading between the lines…
China has been on complete all-hands-on-deck military alert for all forms of warfare since January 2020. (You’d never know this if all you read is the American “news”.) They discovered a brand new and “novel coronavirus” this month. This discovery set a number of things in motion. First was the WHO which sent out an alert, and second was a rearming and re-posturing of all military and militia in China. If it wasn’t for their aggressive alert status, this virus would not have been detected, or preventative steps taken.
Again…
[1] Brand new, never seen before, virus. (Imagine that!) [2] More contagious than COVID-19. [3] More lethal than COVID-19. [4] More disgustingly painful than COVID-19. [5] Detected in China by the Chinese military self-defense monitoring teams. [6] The discovery triggered a global announcement by the WHO. [7] American scientists familiar with similar viruses provided supporting information.
22OCT20 Update
The Donald Trump three day excursion to a military Base for hospitalization for COVID-19, happened exactly at the same time that China discovered the second bio-weapon attack. The COVID-20.
CNN told the truth about the so-called respected “Chinese virologist” from Hong Kong. You know the one, that claimed that she was employed by the Chinese government to develop the COVID-19 as a Bio-Weapon. And did so at the Wuhan Virus Lab.
Well, she lied. Not only that, but she is direct-linked to both Mike Pompeo, and Steve Bannon (both hard-core neocons):
Sick. So many Chinese seditious traitors. Surprise. CNN told the truth about the so-called respected "Chinese virologist" from Hong Kong lie about Covid-19 virus and China: She is linked to Mike Pompeo: https://t.co/0avZQSuF9N
https://asiatimes.com/2020/10/pompeos-record-a-litany-of-failure/
Excerpt:
To make his case for demonizing China, Pompeo will use any source of questionable legitimacy. One example was a paper written by Li-Meng Yan, a virologist and at the time of publication a postdoctoral student at Hong Kong University. Her paper claimed that the Covid-19 virus was created in a Wuhan lab.
Her finding was sensational as it seemed to authenticate Trump’s and Pompeo’s accusation that China should be held accountable for the pandemic. The popular media went wild with the story, even though those in scientific circles criticized the non-peer-reviewed paper as weak on science.
Rapid Reviews: COVID-19, a collaboration between the University of California at Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, quickly solicited reviews of the Yan paper by four renowned scientists in the field and their conclusion was:
“This manuscript does not demonstrate sufficient scientific evidence to support its claims. Claims are at times baseless and are not supported by the data and methods used. Decision-makers should consider the author’s claims in this study misleading.”
Those reviews followed the publication of the Yan paper by about two weeks. It’s a safe bet that the refutation is unlikely to attract the attention of the mainstream media.
An added side note in the comment section was the observation that the co-authors listed in Yan’s paper did not exist but were fictitious – in other words, a blatant lie.
So what could have motivated Yan? By now, it has become quite clear that providing material for China-bashing can be very lucrative business. Gordon Chang showed that he could publish a book on China that totally missed the mark – instead of economic collapse, China is about to become the largest economy in the world – and instead of striking out, he became an anti-China media star for the last 20 years.
Peter Navarro did even better. He wrote a book and a documentary titled Death by China, a complete work of fiction, with imaginary “expert” “Ron Varra,” who turned out to be the anagrammatic alter ego of Navarro himself. This China-bashing turned him from being a failed politician and outcast academic into the holder of a seat in the inner circle at the Trump White House.
25OCT20
American military forces have been training to take and seize Chinese occupied islands in the South China Sea.
Army paratroopers have practiced flying long distance then jumping onto China’s island outposts in the disputed waters of the China Seas. Seizing outposts—and the strategic airstrips they host—could give U.S. forces new bases from which to strike back against the Chinese.
But the Chinese military scoffed at the idea. “The assumption that U.S. troops could capture China's islands and reefs in the South China Sea is no more than media speculation,” Xu Hailin wrote in Global Times, an official mouthpiece of the People’s Liberation Army.
That’s untrue. The Pentagon actively is preparing for just such a contingency. Back in July, 350 paratroopers from the Army’s 25th Infantry Division flew in Air Force C-17 transports from Alaska to Guam and practiced dropping onto, and capturing, a simulated enemy airfield.
American troops landing on a Chinese island would represent a serious act of aggression and a major escalation of any conflict, Xu posited. “If the U.S. military really reaches out to capture China's islands and reefs, it will declare the start of a total war with China.”
How serious?
Does the declaration of “a total war with China” means that China will “file a complaint” with the UN, or something else? Maybe they might shoot back! (Gasp.) Maybe they might do something that the neocons running the administration is not prepared for…
...In any event, Xu vowed that an American assault on a Chinese outpost would invite a devastating response.
“The U.S. troops will have to face an all-out counterattack from the People's Liberation Army and will certainly pay a heavy price for their reckless decisions,” Xu wrote.
28OCT20
Those state-of-the-art Taiwanese chip factories, are actually mainland Chinese operations. One of those things that no one in the mainstream, and alternative media mentions…
I got this thread from a WeChat group, between two Westerners. Interesting history about TSMC,
[Regaining The Edge In U.S. Chip Manufacturing: https://semiengineering.com/can-the-u-s-regain-its-edge-in-chip-manufacturing/?fbclid=IwAR3nVp4oNWMJNi-OCZQwAcSBN7goF0QnZy3mU5n6tAVhks6DzU1oVfIdEeA]
Yeah can confirm x86 are stagnating due to the cisc designs of the architecture while the likes of arm and mips etc which uses risc design it can be made smaller and more efficient
Morris Chang, the founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's first and largest silicon foundry, was not "Taiwanese". Chang was Zhejiangese, born in Ningbo.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is not a "Taiwanese" company. It is a Chinese company located in the Chinese province of Taiwan.
Sun Yun-suan, minister of economic affairs and Premier of the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo, was one of the chief architects of the ROC's "economic miracle" that enabled it to become one of the East Asian Tigers.
Sun was not Taiwanese. He was Shangdongese, born in Penglai. Neither, of course, were Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo, who were also Zhejiangese.
Sun recruited Chang to become chairman and president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute that spawned major semiconductor companies such as TSMC and the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park which would serve as a major electronics and semiconductor manufacturing hub.
The plain truth is that TSMC is a Chinese achievement.
All the figures involved were so-called "mainlanders" -- a pejorative term used by Taiwan independence Quislings to sow hatred between Chinese from the mainland region of China and Chinese from the Taiwan region of China.
All the figures involved were patriotic Chinese nationalists and unwavering advocates of Chinese reunification.
Indeed. Technology presents us with new opportunities.. Sad though our lot seem to be technophobes more keen in lining their pockets and keeping the starts quo of cleptocracy and "service industry Jobs" rather than innovating
What happens when you more your capital abroad and focus on financial sector
However with China developing the productive forces it opens up new opportunities for the proletariat to build themselves up
-Jeff J. Brown
29OCT20
Reports on what occurred during the American lead naval sortie in the South China Sea in late Summer 2020, are coming in, in drips and drabs.
Recall, that the US mobilized three aircraft carriers – USS Theodore Roosevelt, USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan – to patrol the Indo-Pacific waters, an act seen as a “warning” to China. Each carrier was teamed up with a “minor” carrier, making a total of 6 American aircraft carriers, plus the British HMS Queen Elizabeth (a “super” aircraft carrier). That is seven aircraft carriers along with their support ships. This is the largest naval flotilla of aircraft carriers in history.
The ships eventually left the area, and we have been trying to figure out what happened.
American & British Media – Very quiet.
Very little information. Suspiciously little.
Except that there is going to be a change in strategy. This new strategy would involve the use of AI controlled underwater weapons and drones. The use of a “traditional” assault force using a large force of carriers is not considered to be practical.
Additionally large boost to the black budget has been approved and moving forward. It is supposedly considered to be “urgent“.
(Note; If it is reported, it's NOT secret) FOUR paramilitary CIA officers drowned while on a secret mission to plant an underwater pod intended to track the Chinese military in the South China Sea, it has emerged. The men were reportedly caught in a tropical storm while attempting to place the device, which had been disguised to resemble a rock, off the Philippine island of Luzon.
The Chinese have intercepted clandestine troops in operations upon Chinese territory. It is unknown what has happened to them…
Meet the HN-1, China’s New AI-Powered Underwater Drone. The battle for future undersea AI dominance is heating up and China’s ambitions are not small in this domain.
Curiously, from American Media…
There was an “accident” when American marine forces attempted a landing on “one of the islands off California”. All eight / nine of the soldiers are assumed dead. None were recovered. The justification is that the ocean is “too deep”, and they all died inside of an “amphibious tank”. But by looking at any oceanographic map of the islands off the California coast, we can see that this claim is simply not true.
Just keep in mind that there were many, many events and actions that were NOT reported to the public during this entire period of time.
Here is a nice interactive map of the (inferred) Chinese power projection in the South China Sea.
You all might want to consider what the rest of the world thinks about the Trump Polices with China, and the Asian Pacific Rim. Here’s a great article out of Australia…
The polls indicate, and most commentators believe, that Biden will win, but Trump is campaigning furiously, and the prospect of a legal imbroglio also looms.
Neither Biden nor Trump has made much of foreign policy in their campaigns.
Biden has said he would not be bluffed by China, and would not hesitate to “call it out” or retaliate against egregious acts, but the end of the Trump Presidency would certainly break the flow of “China is the enemy” that has characterized it.
Trump has surrounded himself with “China hawks”, and has personified the US anti-China campaign, but given his record it’s not impossible that a re-elected Trump would reverse policy towards China, if he came to believe that that was in the United States’, or his own, interests.
Whoever wins, in the election aftermath it will be important for Australian policymakers to keep in mind that our position (Australian) and the US’s position are not the same.
We want a peaceful, prosperous and stable Asia-Pacific, or Indo-Pacific.
The US wants that, too, but also wants to be top dog in it. As a US academic visiting Australia said last year, “the US can not tolerate a peer competitor”. But China is one, and many in the US “feel the hot breath”.
There are one or two things that can be said in response to the “peer competitor” line.`
One is “grow up”.
Another is “compete, don’t complain”, and there are certainly voices in the US saying just that.
The important thing for us to remember is that while we value our alliance relationship with the US, that is not the policy end-point for us. That end-point is a state of affairs in the Asia or Indo-Pacific under which we and other countries can live peacefully and prosper, in a stable environment.
How can that be achieved?
Certainly not by following the tack taken by Pompeo, who can’t even bring himself to speak of the “Chinese Government”; rather he refers to the “Chinese Communist Party”.
It’s a great pity that at this possibly pivotal time we don’t have anyone at the highest levels of our Government with a strong personal relationship with a Chinese counterpart, as Prime Minister Hawke had with Premier Zhao Ziyang — someone who could effectively make the point that China’s actions in the South China Sea or in regard to the Uighurs aren’t really in China’s best interests, without making a public campaign of it.
Perhaps our very able Ambassador in Beijing is saying these things anyway. And perhaps our goal of a peaceful, prosperous and stable Asia-Pacific can only come about if both the US and China can more fully accept that they have to live with each other, make room for each other, and not regard any step forward by one as a step back for the other, as Trump is said to be prone to do.
We also have to look at our own bilateral relationship with China. Why is it now described as in its “most frozen” state ever, despite China still being our largest trading partner, and still buying huge amounts of iron ore at record prices, thus preventing our budget deficit from being even larger? Both sides have contributed to the present situation, and we need to recognize that if we are going to improve it....
(more)
...But I firmly believe that what we must try to do is to include China in joint efforts and mechanisms and gradually re-build trust, rather than build alliances to defend against or contain it.
One reason is that efforts to contain or limit China simply won’t work; see what it’s already doing economically in Europe, Latin America and southern Africa, as well as in East and Central Asia, and with Russia.
Another reason is that it’s such a negative thing in which to invest our efforts and future. Of course it will be up to the Chinese how they respond. But we should have a go.
2NOV20
Just a few days before the election between Trump and Biden, the climate in the Asian Pacific Rim is…
America's choice and Asia's future
Whoever claims victory in the US presidential contest this week, Washington’s grasp over Asia’s future is on the wane.
It’s not that the United States is no longer a great power unmatched as yet in its technological and military superiority. Despite all its self-inflicted wounds, through mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis and President Trump’s economically debilitating ‘America First’ strategy, it remains so.
The short-term costs of the Trump administration’s mismanagement have been huge, in terms of US deaths, the fragmentation of national cohesion and lost trade and income. But it’s the costs over the next ten years or more that cast a long dark shadow over US societal and economic strength and the role of the United States as a reliable anchor in an open multilateral global order.
The costs of COVID-19 continue to mount and the strategy that will see an end to it is still to be articulated. Nor is there a strategy in place to deal with the collapse in the US and the global economies that the pandemic has brought with it. In international cooperation on both strategic fronts, the United States is out of play.
The world’s confidence in US power, the moral authority it once commanded and the capacity to deploy it are much diminished. Even the most energetic and driven administration won’t restore it easily, soon or perhaps ever.
If Joe Biden had a 20-point lead across the board in the polls as the United States heads towards election eve — and the polls are narrowing not widening at the finishing line — most pundits would still be shy about calling the outcome until it’s all done and dusted. So burnt are they by Trump’s unexpected win in 2016 and scared by Trump’s refusal to be straightforward about conceding power.
Yet US political trends and geopolitical realities are clear and key strategic calculations in Asia will be framed by them whatever the electoral outcome.
There are few illusions in Asian capitals about what they would inherit if Trump should once more claim the US presidency. East Asian leaders have no inclination to sign up to an ill-disciplined brawl between the United States and China as they are being pushed to do by Trump and his deputies.
The priority in Asia is to deal with COVID-19 and navigate recovery around the probability that China, having dealt with the pandemic first, will also lead global economic recovery. As former Indonesian deputy foreign minister and ambassador to the United States Dino Patti Djalal observes, they have no appetite for a New Cold War and ‘framing China as an ideological threat (constantly referring to “Communist China”, not just China)… [adopting] a blanket (rather than a la carte) attack against China: on the coronavirus, trade, investment, technology, TikTok, the World Health Organization, the South China Sea, Chinese companies and students, democracy, human rights, climate change — the list goes on.
If there is anything that is clear’, says Dino, ‘it is that China has de-ideologised its foreign policy since the 1980s. No one seriously believes that China’s political intention is to turn Southeast Asian nations to communism.
Indeed, China’s strategic intention is no longer about spreading communism (as was the case up to the late 1970s), but rather about strategic acceptance, economic engagement and political influence’.
Nor is the happy assumption that a Biden win will lead to a simple American course-correction accepted anywhere that matters in East Asia. Biden has no power to reclaim the past dignity and authority of the US presidency. As former Australian prime minister Paul Keating said of the United States under Trump, ‘if you pawn the crown it is incapable of being redeemed at the same value’.
Trump was no political aberration, chaotic though his administration may have been. He captured America’s contemporary populist spirit and unleashed its powerful political angst. Biden’s ambitious climate change agenda or the hope that he might return to negotiating entry to the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement may stir still optimistic, liberal hearts.
But, apart from convincing allies and partners, including China, that he’s got the ticker for it, it’ll take time, require superhuman effort and it’s another matter altogether to pass the Pennsylvania test and sell a new global foreign policy strategy to the average American voter, let alone his own political operatives. American morale is already at a low level and has further to sink yet.
As TJ Pempel says in our first lead article this week, ‘Trump’s policies were less a one-man aberration than an outgrowth of, and strongly supported by, the Republican Party. The past four years have exposed and exacerbated gaping US socio-economic divisions, the limitations of its political institutions, the contentiousness of its information channels, and the fragility of its democratic norms. Americans now inhabit separate tribes, value alternative priorities, are convinced of competing “facts” and are firmly convinced that eviscerating the other tribe is the path to a better America’.
There’s gathering understanding in East Asian capitals that whatever happens in Washington this week, the solutions to the region’s problems will not be readily found there. The foundations on which confidence in regional stability and prosperity might be restored must be found in international cooperation effort in Asia itself that reaches out to, but cannot rely upon, the United States. This is a challenge for which there is little preparation or precedent.
In a geopolitically fractured world, strategic competition between the United States and China ultimately limits both countries’ capacity to contribute constructively both to global recovery and renovation of the global order.
The United States, the world’s biggest power, has lost its appetite for multilateral cooperation and is at odds strategically with China, the world’s second largest power. Strategic competition between the United States and China ultimately limits both countries’ prosperity and capacity to contribute constructively to global recovery.
As Elizabeth Ingleson points out in our second lead article this week, the ‘next US administration has a chance to abandon the framework of strategic competition and adopt a more nuanced policy of engagement … This would allow the two nations to work towards a multilateral approach to the climate crisis. By linking geopolitics and climate, the United States and China have an opportunity to improve the prospects of both’.
But as Sheila Smith concludes in upcoming pre-US election preview the ‘intensity of rancour that has permeated US politics will not be solved in one election, and lingering resentments may impede the president’s ability to be attentive to the accelerating shifts in the regional balance of power. A distracted America may be Asia’s lot’.
The reality is that small and middle powers in Asia now have to play an unfamiliar leadership role. This ominous responsibility will remain long after the 46th President of the United States settles into the White House.
Other recent articles in which you may be interested from the East Asia Forum are listed below. You can click the title of each one or visit www.eastasiaforum.org for daily content.
Editors
East Asia Forum
2 November 2020
The latest at the Forum:Reclaiming US credibility after the Trump tsunami
TJ Pempel, UC Berkeley
8NOV20
Joe Biden is elected, and Donald Trump and his neocon army will need to decamp from the White House. They will be forced to play their “war games” elsewhere, and the keys and codes to the enormous nuclear and bio/chemical arsenal will be handed over to others. Hopefully, people of a more sensible bent.
We will see what will happen. I, for one, look forward to a return of sanity to the world.
10NOV20
China has been, along with Russia, suspiciously quiet about the election and the Biden Presidency. With various unofficial responses coming out of China that pretty much all say the same thing…
China should not harbor any illusions that Biden's election will ease or bring a reversal to China-US relations, nor should it weaken its belief in improving bilateral ties.
US competition with China and its guard against China will only intensify.
But it's in the common interests of people from both countries and of international community that China-US relations become eased and controllable.
The two countries must work together and take joint actions to explore and work on realizing some kind of stability and predictability for their bad relations and managing bilateral ties from worsening to a destructive extent.
-https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1206128.shtml
11NOV11
A pretty good write-up about what probably would happen to the China-USA relationship with Trump and his neocons out of the White House, and a Biden presidency in place…
U.S.-China Business Under Biden
Published on November 10, 2020
Status is reachable
Brandon Hughes, LLM, PMP
Veterans Integration Program Apprenticeship at Goldman Sachs
24 articles
Following
What an amazing week it has been. Both United States (U.S.) and international citizens watched the 2020 President election with anxiousness and excitement. In the end, Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden became the projected winner of both the popular & electoral vote. While current U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to concede, preparations are already underway for a transition to a Biden administration. Below are a few thoughts from a career in U.S.-China geopolitical & business relations.An Easing of Overall Tensions
This does not mean a Biden administration will be soft but likely use a more traditional foreign policy approach to China. This means focusing on human rights, promoting mutually beneficial policies, and taking a more piecemeal approach. What this means for business is that a return to more stable policies will support 3-5 year strategic planning. However, don't expect a return to the status quo overnight. In fact, some policies may never go back. Biden has signaled he will be tough on China in certain respects but business leaders can expect these policies to be much more transparent and telegraphed before implementation.
Use of multilateral organizations
U.S. foreign policy has long supported the use of multilateral organizations to put political pressure on areas of interest. Regarding China, this means a more coordinated approach to addressing Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and other political issues. This may or may not be effective depending on the level of commitment to policies but it will ensure that changes to policy are communicated well in advance.
A Gradual Reduction in Trade Tariffs
Similar to the easing of tensions, we may see a gradual reduction or repeal of trade tensions. A large portions of U.S. imports (by U.S. companies) were impacted in addition to export of raw material, agriculture, and high value added goods. These industries have been hit hard (if not decimated) due to the tariffs (and the overall approach to trade with China) and it's likely the Biden administration will take a "mending fences" approach. This applies to not only China but others as well.
A Reprioritization of Human Rights
This has been on the back-burner of current U.S. policy but it's likely that a Biden administration will put Human Rights on the docket in upcoming negotiations. This is long-standing U.S. policy and moderately effective in some cases. However, this may come in year 2 or 3 of Biden's term as addressing domestic issues and reestablishing relations will likely take priority in terms of policy issues.
Reciprocal Easing from China
China is unlikely to alter their next 5-year plan but you may see more "easing" of enforcement or legal barriers that have been impacting U.S. business. This may come as an easing of enforcement measures against U.S. shipments to China at the ports. It may result in a more open environment to business or an easing of doing business. However, like the U.S., don't expect an overnight change in priorities or stance. There is a lot to discuss before either side agrees to step back.
Takeaways for Business
U.S.-China relations will not change overnight nor will the policies. There are significant hurdles facing the U.S.-China relationships that are echoed on both sides of the political aisle. However, businesses can expect a more tempered approach to foreign & trade policy with China and a re-engagement in more multilateral institutions. This is positive news for multinational ventures as stability creates an environment for growth. Businesses who have held off the last 3 years should develop a China & APAC strategy to capture unique policy or growth opportunities that are presented. At the same time, businesses & investors should understand there are still considerable structural issues between the U.S. and China that may not be fixed and still impact bilateral policy. Overall, a Biden administration is positive news for those doing business with the world's 2nd largest economy. This means growth for revenues & growth for company value which ultimately reflected in growth for retirement accounts and investment funds.
-https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/us-china-business-under-biden-brandon-hughes-llm-pmp/?trackingId=8uOp0h9f%2BrOjXuDsjMXc3w%3D%3D
Biden and Xi Peng after the conclusion of the US and China trade agreement. This agreement was unilaterally torn up by President Trump in early 2017. The conservative media in 2020 are promoting the narrative that Biden will accept and embrace the revised American stance with China that Trump and Pompeo have created. I strongly disagree. The Democrat Party is one of negotiation and give-and-take. It is not a hard-line unilateralist evangelical entity such has been the case by the neocon-led White House..
24NOV20 Update
Yes, Trump make it impossible for anyone (in America) to pay for Chinese goods.
Remittances for Amazon.com, ebay.com, and paypal.com refuse to allow for payments to Chinese individuals, or banks. I have heard stores about how some of my Chinese friends have had their stores and markets closed on them without notice.
It really didn’t become crystal clear until I started to ask my fellow American expats if they ever received the COVID-19 coronavirus stimulus check that they applied for. And the answer was no. No one received it, including yours truly. So I inquired. Yup. Any one inside of China or using Chinese institutions have their checks zeroed.
And people wonder WHY so many mail-in ballots were for Biden. Heck, he just about threw away one million expats in that brilliant decision of his. Fucker!
Why not plaster a sign that says things in clear English;
No Money to anyone inside of China. Period, by order of Donald Trump.
After all, it was by EO.
29NOV20
Seems that the “firehose of disinformation” that the Biden Administration is going to be harsher then the Pompeo/Trump administration is all just CIA bullshit.
In the speech, Paulson lays out his recommendations for President-elect Biden’s China policy, arguing that competition without unnecessary confrontation should be our goal—because confrontation without effective competition has produced some poor results for the American people. He further recommends that the U.S. pursue a self-interested policy that he terms “targeted reciprocity.” By that, the U.S. should move from being reflexive, responding to anything and everything China does, to focusing on sectors where the U.S. is the strongest and most competitive. In turn, targeted reciprocity can be a negotiating tool and lever to help achieve real results in critical areas of the U.S.-China relationship, including trade and climate change. Below are Secretary Paulson’s prepared remarks.
Download “Targeted Reciprocity” Full Text
1DEC20
Yeah. The world is slowwwwwlyyyyy catching on what a mess Donald Trump and his cabal of evil neocons hath wrought…
COVID-19 is a bioweapon deployed against China by the United States to take advantage of the mass migration during the Chinese New Year.
To prevent/minimize the blowback from the virus possibly getting out of containment in China, a mild strain (CoV-A; antibody producing strain) was released among the population of the Western countries months before the deployment of the bioweapon strain (CoV-B) in Wuhan (and possibly Qom afterwards). It's akin to innoculating your population with cowpox before hitting the opposition population with smallpox. CoV-A has a much lower lethality rate (around 0.1%) than CoV-B (10-15%) which is why the data on how lethal COVID-19 is all over the place.
Let's look at the evidence:
1. Herd immunity: Only a few weeks after reporting how Chinese are welding their patients in their homes (February 6, 2020), at the same time as reporting mass graves near Qom (March 12, 2020). The Western (as well as Brazil and India) governments and media are all talking about herd immunity. With Boris Johnson saying that the UK would "take it on the chin" (March 5, 2020), Merkel stating that 60-70% of Germans would get the virus (March 11, 2020) to Bolsonaro saying that Brazilians are immune (March 27, 2020), with the media touting that the plan is not to stop the disease but to "flatten the curve" so that the medical system doesn't get overwhelmed. Despite COVID-19 being a 'never before seen' virus with unknown properties and lethality, it's almost as if they knew that the disease isn't that dangerous.
2. Theodore Roosevelt, Captain Brett Crozier and the Vietnam outbreak: The USS Theodore Roosevelt is a carrier in the Pacific fleet stationed in the South China Sea. The captain of the ship Brett Crozier, after discovering some of his sailors displaying symptoms tried to get the carrier docked in Guam so that his sailors can be evacuated and quarantined. His email to multiple captains and admiral Baker was leaked to the press, and he was relieved of duty shortly afterwards by Naval Secretary Modly.
The blame was on the shore-leave in Vietnam on March 5, but during that time, Vietnam cases plateaued at 16 for weeks, and cases did not increase until after the carrier left. The first wave of the Vietnam outbreak only had less than 300 infected vs. 1156 on the carrier. Furthermore there were no COVID related deaths in Vietnam during the first wave vs only 1 on the Theodore Roosevelt.
The scales of these outbreaks highly implies that the first COVID-19 wave in Vietname is actually transmission from the carrier to the Vietnamese population rather than the other way around. Furthermore, the low lethality rate in both cases means that it is the CoV-A variant.
The reason is obvious in hindsight:If China were unable to contain the outbreak the U.S. military would take advantage of the chaos and start a hot war while the Chinese are incapable of retaliating, it would thus be necessary to inoculate their own troops so they don't succumb to the bioweapon. Crozier was castigated because in raising the alarm with the media instead of the usual channels so the the story can be buried, China, by looking at the Theodore Roosevelt outbreak and Vietnam, not only confirmed their suspicions that Wuhan was a bioweapon deployment, but also how the U.S. and its co-conspirators plan to limit the possible blowback. So when Germany was raising noise about seizing Chinese assets in the EU for 'compensation' for the outbreak, the Chinese response is basically: "If the virus is from China, where is your patient zero?" Which brings us to the next point:
3. Difficulty in locating "patient zero" in Europe: From months, the EU has been trying to find a patient zero to link back to the Wuhan outbreak without much success. The current theory is a 43 year old Frenchman who got it from Algeria in December, the link to Wuhan is tenuous at best. However, if we work from the two-strain theory, this difficulty is pretty easy to explain: not all patients who contract CoV-A are asymptomatic, those who have it and get tested would be a positive case for COVID-19. Finding patient zero involves working backwards from all known positive cases. Since CoV-A has been in circulation for months before CoV-B was deployed in China, finding a CoV-B patient zero linking back to China is practically impossible with CoV-A positives being around for much longer.
4. False positives: Something mentioned over and over again is the high rate of "false positives" of the PCR test: how the outbreak is not as bad as reported because of the rate of false positives. This would fit perfectly with the two-strain theory: CoV-A and CoV-B should be almost genetically identical since CoV-A is suppose to prime the immune system to fight against CoV-B, if the intricate human immune system cannot tell the difference between CoV-A and CoV-B, there is no way the cheap dime-a-dozen mass produced tests used for mass testing would be able to do so. This would explain the high rate of "false positives" outside of China. Since the Western governments were (and probably still are) going for the "herd immunity" route, they would of course want CoV-A to be spread as much as possible while limiting the CoV-B. The more lethal CoV-B would of course have much more severe symptoms than CoV-A, hence people who test positive for COVID-19 with mild to no symptoms were informed that they are "false positive" so they can continue spreading CoV-A among the general population. The fault is not in the test kits but the people in charge of interpreting the results.
5. Mask policy: Continuing on the previous point. While China started masking up pretty much from the start. The CDC and WHO were both against masks before they were for them. For example the U.S. Surgeon General tweeted on February 29: "Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!" Dr. Mike Ryan in the Geneva media briefing on March 30: "There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit. In fact, there's some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly." Remember Merkel's (March 11) and Bolsonaro's (March 27) mentioned above, at the end of March the prevailing strain detected outside of China, Iran and Italy would be the CoV-A strain, hence the deliberate and systematic campaign to mislead the public against mask use, they WANT the CoV-A strain to reach saturation in the population before CoV-B hits.
However, if we look at the Swedish 'miracle' and the Vietnam outbreak, it seems the CoV-A strain spreads much slower than CoV-B. Sweden got lucky and closed their border before CoV-B got into the country, their positive COVID-19 are CoV-A cases (that they got from the U.S.) which spread very slowly even without a lockdown. Vietnam closed their border with China very early and the outbreak most likely came from the Theodore Roosevelt, which makes it CoV-A; with a lockdown the cases were brought down to zero pretty quickly. Given that there is no way tests that don't sequence the entire genome can differentiate between CoV-A and CoV-B, and the reluctance of the U.S. and its co-conspirators to implement a financially crippling lockdown for the mostly harmless CoV-A, once CoV-B gets a foothold in a country, due to exponential increase CoV-B would quickly overtake CoV-A. A lockdown would be counterproductive to the 'herd immunity' approach since slower spreading CoV-A would be much more vulnerable to quarantine. That is even assuming that CoV-A provides immunity:
6. Chinese claims on reinfection: multiple studies from China has claimed that followup checkups on former COVID-19 patients showed that only a minority of them still carried antibodies against the disease thus longterm immunity does not exist in most people, while the UK studies claim that T-cells still remember the disease and thus longterm immunity exists. On the surface, it seems that these are merely academic, however if Wuhan outbreak was a bioweapon attack, it would explain the motives behind publishing these studies.
Considering the number of countries going for 'herd immunity' back in March, the number of conspirators is immense; China calling the outbreak a bioweapon attack would be like Julius Caesar confronting the Roman senate on March 14th. However, by raising the specter of reinfection, it definitely shakes the faith of the conspirators in the plan: If CoV-B does not provide longterm immunity against CoV-B, what are the chances CoV-A would provide this immunity?. Absence a working vaccine, if CoV-A does not provide longterm immunity, a hard lockdown getting rid of both strains and abandoning the 'herd immunity' plan is the only way to get the pandemic under control.
The big question is whether China is telling the truth about reinfection. China may be bluffing to create a schism between the garden variety blanket-distributor type conspirators and the 'from hell's heart I stab at thee' hardliners; the former would favor implementing a lockdown and taking the loss, the latter would call it a bluff and try to restart the economy assuming that 'herd immunity' will be achieved.
That's not to say that the UK studies can be trusted, after all, with their future tightly bound to the U.S., they are pretty much America's mouthpiece in trying to keep all the conspirators on the original plan: as long as the lethality rate doesn't get too high, most of the cases should still be the CoV-A strain. (The closer the death rate gets to the 10%, the higher the CoV-B/CoV-A ratio is.)
Posted by: Sid Victor Cattoni | Dec 1 2020 21:41 utc | 26
2DEC20
What? You mean that Biden isn’t going to continue Trump’s Anti-China crusade? How can this be???? After all, since August 2020 through December 2020 the “news” has been all awash at how “tougher” Biden will be on China than Trump.
(CNN)
President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team are preparing for an early, all-out push to pass an ambitious new stimulus bill, while also drawing up plans for a flurry of executive actions aimed at delivering on campaign promises and undoing the Trump administration's efforts...
7DEC20
Two decades of endless war and a bloated Pentagon budget that has proven useless in preventing Covid–19 deaths, now 270,000 and counting, are a jarring reminder that America’s foreign policy is thoroughly broken: It actually makes America and Americans less safe.
Successive administrations have deployed the military in a costly, counterproductive, and indiscriminate manner, normalizing war and treating armed dominance as an end in itself. In consequence, the foreign policies of the United States are detached from any defensible conception of U.S. interests and from a decent respect for the rights and dignity of humankind.
Marginal adjustments to the current approach will prove insufficient. A deeper rethinking of American foreign policy is warranted. This must be an undertaking that puts the well-being of the American people ahead of ambitions to dominate the globe.
President-elect Joe Biden appears to recognize the need for a serious reorientation. His just-named national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, recently said that Biden has tasked his foreign policy team with “reimagining our national security for the unprecedented combination of crises we face at home and abroad,” including pandemics and the climate crisis. Moreover, Sullivan said that American foreign policy has to be judged by a basic question: Does it “make life better, easier, and safer” for Americans at home? Our foreign policy, in Sullivan’s words, has to deliver for American families.
-A New Direction: A Foreign Policy Playbook on Military Restraint for the Biden Team
23DEC20
Meanwhile, Russian and Chinese military continue to work together.
It follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement in October that the idea of a future Russia-China military alliance can’t be ruled out — a signal of deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing amid growing tensions in their relations with the United States.
Until that moment, Russia and China had hailed their “strategic partnership,” but rejected any talk about the possibility of their forming a military alliance.
Putin also noted in October that Russia has been sharing highly sensitive military technologies with China that helped significantly bolster its defense capability.
Russia has sought to develop stronger ties with China as its relations with the West sank to post-Cold War lows over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, accusations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and other issues.
And Trump awards the highest military honors to the President of Australia for his anti-Chinese actions.
And Russia and China test fire their nuclear ICBM missiles.
Russian Submarine Fires Four Nuclear Missiles | The Daily ...
2020-12-14 · The Borei-class nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine Vladimir Monomakh launched four Bulava missiles at targets on a firing range in the Arkhangelsk region in northwest Russia, the Associated Press reported.. Borei-class submarines are capable of carrying 16 Bulava missiles. They displace 24,000 tons of water when submerged, can go up to 29 nautical miles per hour (just over 33 …
https://dailycaller.com/2020/12/14/russia-submarine-nuclear-bulava-missiles-borei...
2021 New year
I have received some interesting information concerning the directed energy beam weapons employed by China.
They operate underwater, just like they do in the air.
They can completely destroy the electronic systems of all types.
All three aircraft carriers sent to the South China Sea during the Summer of 2020 were nuclear powered.
The American stealth submarines are also nuclear powered.
The Chinese directed energy weapons systems can cause the American Navy nuclear power systems to go haywire, go into a SCRAM mode, and melt down.
Obviously, no one wants mini Chernobyl meltdowns off their beaches, but were the USA to initiate a hot war in the South China Sea, you can well expect that to be the reality for the United States Navy.
With Donald Trump set to leave office, newly released documents show his strategy towards Beijing has largely failed, and that the US isn’t confident over its ability to contain China in certain areas should a conflict arise.
Following the departure of White House Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger and with the Trump administration coming to an end, a number of documents have been declassified setting out its ‘Indo-Pacific’ strategy or, more specifically, its gameplan to attempt to contain China over its four years in office.
The documents are hardly comprehensive, yet reveal ambitions to contain Beijing in the political, diplomatic, economic and military spheres, including a blueprint of what the US would do in a potential war scenario.
According to the papers, the US has aimed to sustain its “primacy” in the region, “support activists and reformers” opposed to Beijing (such as the Hong Kong protesters), create a counter to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and economically integrate the region towards the US, enlist allies against China in the form of the Quad and assist “the rise of India”.
But what about in the event of a conflict?
The documents spoke of aiming to prevent China “dominating the first island chain” – the scope of islands extending from Japan to Taiwan and around the South China Sea – via air and sea, and to maintain uncontested supremacy over the “area beyond”. Military analysts have described the former objective as being “modest” in expectation.
If anything, the file reveals the comprehensive failure of the Trump administration’s strategy towards the region during his tenure in office. Not only have attempts to bolster America’s economic presence failed completely, largely owing to the contradictory priorities of the White House, but in addition the document illustrates subtle doubt rather than confidence that the US is capable of defeating China in this “first island chain” region.
The US, above all, is seeking naval containment of China, and in line Beijing has utilized the Belt and Road Initiative to counter it by diversifying its energy supply routes.
Throughout its tenure in office, the Trump administration has been unable to accept China’s status as a rising power, and these documents reveal how this resulted in a set of policies aimed at attempting to quell the country’s rise through various means.
These methods, however, have not yielded much success, largely because of the US’s understating of the dynamics which underscore Beijing’s centrality and importance to the region as an economic power, and the erroneous belief that it can easily divide the world into cold war blocs and force countries to undercut their relations with China on the premise of values alone.
The idea that the US can somehow displace Beijing again as the region’s economic centre of gravity is not realistic, and events such as the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership underscore that.
While it is obvious that the economic balance of power is shifting against America, what about in the military sphere? The documents show the US is looking at the region in two distinct areas; that “first island chain” and “the second one”, which constitutes the wider Pacific.
It believes that it should be able to dominate the latter in the event of a war, but can only at best try to prevent China from dominating the former completely, acknowledging that Beijing likely already has the upper hand in the South and East China Seas, and around Taiwan.
Based on this, it seems apparent the US would logically aim to defeat China
in such a conflict via an attempt at a naval embargo, given a physical invasion could never be possible.
This would involve choking off China’s access to the wider ocean and key maritime points such as the Strait of Malacca.
This strategic planning by the US subsequently sheds light on the BRI.
By strengthening infrastructure across the Eurasian landmass, China is diversifying its supply chain routes and reducing reliance on areas that can be dominated by the US Navy.
For example, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Gwadar Port gives Beijing a passage to the western Indian ocean which would bypass US attempts at containment.
This has coincided with China’s first overseas military base in the East African country of Djibouti and a port it is working on there, which would be used to protect its interests in this area and thus thwart any US military planning. As the Indo-Pacific strategy has sought to militarize China’s periphery and enlist partners, Beijing has responded.
In this case, the declassified documents reveal the wish-list of a dying administration that has thrown many things at China, with few sticking. It shows the scale of the challenge America faces. Despite the erratic nature of Trump, one should logically expect many of these ideas to be retained and form a template for incoming president, Joe Biden.
Objectives such as sustaining US military primacy in Asia and sharpening initiatives such as the Quad will not go away anytime soon, even if there is a substantial lack of realism in them.
Yet the element of doubt in how a conflict with China could be managed only alludes to the shift that is taking place. If America is not confident it could defeat Beijing in the first island chain, then what does that mean for the future? And for Taiwan?
China’s bet in fortifying its presence in the South China Sea, while diversifying its strategic options with the BRI, seems well placed. And that’s why it isn’t Beijing that is fighting an uphill battle to establish a localized dominance on this side of the world.
24JAN21
As Trump leaves the Oval Office, people are comparing his office to President Biden’s office. One of the big stand outs is the huge amount of military articles in the office.
Do you want more?
Yah, I do hope that you enjoyed this post. I’m gonna place it in my China Index, My Trump Trade Wars Index, and my SHTF Index. You can access these indexes directly here…
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Most of the negative comments to my postings come from people who don’t read the entire post / article. They scan the headline, maybe read one or two paragraphs and then lash out with some kind of vitriol. Aside from the trolls (they don’t last long here) the responses are telling. Unless you state something similar to the mainstream media narrative, you are a radical; and irresponsible fool, who needs to be “put in his place”. Maybe. Here’s another opinion. Check it out.
Mainstream media
Government approved propaganda for the masses.
Alt-Left and Alt-Right
Elements of real actual truth interspersed with the intentionally outrageous. The articles are designed to push an on-going narrative "off track" and move it away from the truth.
This opinion on the COVID-19 coronavirus is from another person looking at things from a different, and more expansive point of view. He omits some things that I include in my calculus, such as the use of drones to propagate germ warfare, but it’s still a good look at this situation. Please give him every consideration.
China is Confronting the COVID-19 Epidemic. Was It Man-Made? An Act of of Bio-warfare?
The new
coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, also called COVID-19, has as of this date
resulted in more than 3,000 deaths and infected more than 80,000 people
Worldwide, the vast majority of them in China
The epidemic is largely confined to Mainland China.
While the virus has
spread to at least 51 countries according to the WHO, the numbers of
confirmed cases are low: 4691 confirmed cases outside Mainland China.
(See table right)
Not Addressed is that this could be a man-made virus.
Source: WHO, February 28, 2020. 51 countries according to WHO
What western media fails to
address is that there is a probability that the virus could have been
man-made in one or more of the numerous US bio-warfare laboratories.
Western media also are silent about the fact that the virus appears to be largely affecting ethnic Chinese, meaning, it targets specifically Chinese DNA.
Also not addressed is that this virus initially targeted Asians exclusively.
Almost all of the deaths and confirmed cases in the 51 countries and territories to which the virus has spread, are of Chinese origin.
The virus appears to be
strengthening, as it mutates over time, making its control even more
difficult. Will it eventually break the “Chinese DNA boundaries” and
affect also other DNA types, i.e. western “Caucasian” people.
The West expects the Chinese to control the spread and limit it to China.
But the west also expects
Chinese scientists and bio-researchers to overcome the epidemic and stop
the virus from further mutating, therefore reducing the western
infection risk.
Finding a Vaccine.
Despite early hopes that a
vaccine may be found soon – until now there has been little progress in
this direction. However, Cuba’s antiviral Recombinant Interferon Alpha
2B (IFNrec) was chosen by Chinese medical and bio-researchers to combat
the coronavirus.
Interestingly, Interferon
had been discovered in Cuba 39 years ago, at the very onset of Cuba’s
biotechnology programme in 1981. But it is not widely used in the world,
even though it could save countless lives and cure countless patients
(mainly diabetics), simply because of the US boycott that does not allow
marketing of medication Made in Cuba.
This could be an act of biological warfare.
Nevertheless, the COVID19 infection rate seems to have been gradually
declining in the last three weeks. And there is no doubt that China
will overcome this epidemic. Yet, the world must wake up to the fact
that this could be an act of biological warfare.
Precedents: Bird Flu, African Swine Flu affecting China
In the last two years, since 2018 alone, China was hit by several
types of bird flu (H7N4 and H7N9) in 2018 and yet another strain just in
January 2020 which was overshadowed by the more serious COVID-2019.
There was also an outbreak of the African swine Flu (2018), killing millions of pigs.
Propagated by drones. These advanced and technically advanced drones sprayed the virus over the widely isolated pig farms. Not talked about in the Western media, but well known in China.
And there was a massive food crop destruction (2019 – mostly corn and soybeans) by the so-called “armyworms”.
Compensating for the impacts on the supply of pork, corn and soybean,
China resorted to importing theses commodities– and most of the imports
came from the US.
An attempt to create a famine?
Were these ‘outbreaks’ which had destructive impacts on China’s
economy coincidental? They have created instability, food price
inflation and a dependence on imported agricultural products from the
US.
The western media has been playing up the so-called Trump tariff war
with China, while hidden from the limelight and in parallel, more
serious warfare – bio-warfare – was going on.
These actions are being kept hidden from Americans.
In fact, little is known in the west about these previous biological attacks by the US-led west. Thus aiming at damaging massively the China’s economy…
… as well as heightening China’s dependence on imports from the US.
In addition to damaging China morally, thereby, they, the west, believe (wrongly), weakening the level of resistance.
A real war with bombs and guns, maybe nuclear, aiming at total destruction, cannot be ruled out.
The Big Picture
Let’s remember the Big Picture.
Namely that this is, in whatever way you want to turn it, a bio-war against China.
And perhaps the first step of an all-out war against China’s rising economic power…
…and foremost against China’s solid currency, the yuan which may soon take over as the world’s chief reserve currency.
This would mean the fall of the US-dollar hegemony, the only force that keeps the (American) empire alive and kicking, other than its military strength which is non-sustainable…
….as it aims only at destruction abroad…
… but leaving behind a rapidly faltering economy at home.
Precisely the same pattern brought down the Roman Empire some 2000 years ago.
Too Many “Coincidences”: The October 2019 Simulation of a High Level Pandemic
There are too many “coincidences” to conclude that this strengthened coronavirus…
… considerably stronger than SARS, the one of the 2002 / 2003 epidemic…
… ‘escaped’ a Wuhan lab by accident, or as the west would like to present it: by negligence.
First, there were the Military Olympics in October in Wuhan (18 – 27 October 2019), where about 200 American soldiers participated.
The first cases of 2019-nCoV fever were discovered about two weeks later…
… two weeks is the average gestation period from infection to outbreak.
…
Event 201
Second, there was Event 201, on October 18, 2019, at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, in Baltimore, Maryland, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Economic Forum.
(WEF – the corporatocracy representing Big Weapons, Big Pharma and Big Money), and the John Hopkins Institute.
The theme was simulating a High-Level
Pandemic Exercise – and yes, the simulation produced 65 million deaths.
Just a couple of weeks before the first COVID-19 victims were
identified. (See below)
And third – the timing, hitting China right on their most important Holiday, the Lunar New Year. When people are traveling, uniting with family and friends, when there are usually huge festivities with lots of people. This is an event of celebrating happiness.
All now cut short by the outbreak that put Wuhan and portions of Hubei Province, and a total of about 50 million Chinese in quarantine. And more – no shopping, no exchange of presents, no celebrations – a huge economic loss.
Not “just” coincidences
Circumstantial gut-feeling tells me, this is not a series of three coincidences. This could be (yet to be confirmed) a maliciously planned disaster.
Is this is a sinister plan carried out by a western elite to attack
China’s rapidly growing economy, outpacing that of the United States?
Is it an attack on the Yuan which is also gradually replacing the US dollar as a world reserve currency?
When that (the Yuan replacing the dollar) happens the US-empire which essentially relies on dollarization is doomed.
The build-up to more harm and destruction, possibly a hot war?
Strange WHO activity…
In late January, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director General (DG) said that the new coronavirus, COVID19, also called 2019-nCoV, was not a pandemic.
On January 30, probably on instructions from Washington, he declared the outbreak of a Global Emergency, but added on his own initiative that there were no reasons for countries to ban travel of their citizens to China.
In contradiction to WHO’s recommendation, Washington immediately issued a travel warning for US citizens not to travel to China. Many other countries followed their master, especially Europeans.
Another hit on the Chinese economy.
Cruise ships with Chinese on board are not granted docking rights. Merchandise vessels are in many countries not allowed to enter international harbors to unload their goods.
Media Propaganda
The media propaganda drums proclaim that the virus is spreading fast
and will soon engulf the entire world. The culprit is China, where the
virus originated. That’s what western propaganda wants you to believe.
Nobody mentions that the COVID19 virus appears to be focusing on the Chinese genome (yet to be confirmed) and that almost no westerners.
Well, if the media would talk about it, it would become clear for the entire world that the virus could not have been created or originated in China.
As China would not infect her own people.
No matter what the ridiculous Alt-Right narrative might proclaim.
And that the virus was most likely man-made and somehow transported into Wuhan.
Could it be that it was brought to Wuhan by one or more of the American participants in the military games?
Rates are declining.
The death to infection rate is about 3% in China, but has been steadily declining in the past week. The ratio is less than 1% in the several countries outside of China, where the virus was detected. Italy and Iran seem to be exceptions.
In Italy, as of this date, the official number of infected people has jumped to 400 with 12 confirmed deaths, also a death rate of 3%.
Iran with about 140 cases and 20 deaths, a 14% death rate, the highest in the world. Why? Faulty reporting, or do those who died in Iran have Chinese DNA?
In Italy, a country in the midst of the European flu season, most diseased people are elderly, according to the Health Ministry. But how precise are the tests? This is important since most symptoms of COVID19 are very similar to those of the common flu, especially for elderly people vulnerable to respiratory diseases and pneumonia.
By comparison, US deaths from in the 2019 / 2020 flu season so far are estimated at about 34,200 (CDC). Figures in Europe are probably proportionately similar. But these figures are silenced by the media.
And now Italy is building
up the propaganda drama, discussing border closing, but not yet
deciding, and so are France, Germany and Switzerland – the discussion is
a big media hype – but so far to the question – “Shall we ban entry to
travelers from Italy?” – They decided up to now, to leave borders open,
as closing them would be bad for business. Though, that’s what they
don’t say.
To add spice to the drama, Italy has also canceled the Venice Carnival and other public events, even closed church service and tourist attractions and monuments.
Anti-China fear.
The point is tremendous fear mongering, propagating fear from China. People in fear can easily be manipulated. It’s always been the case. Planting fear into a docile and even placid and peaceful population has always been the precursor to a call for war.
Fear, in a first round also helps isolating China, to cause as much economic damage as possible (weakening China to the point of ‘least resistance’).
Public consent for the second round, namely a hot war, will then be easy.
There is not much time, as the Chinese economy is advancing rapidly and along with it – the Yuan’s supremacy over the dollar.
Which, once recognized by the majority of the world, means the dollar hegemony is broken, and through that the US empire is broken.
For sure the US would not shy away from killing millions, hundreds of millions, just to preserve their dollar hegemony.
America.
Washington also realizes that the east, China, Russia and the rest of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is no longer dependent on the west. But could carry on with an autonomous “eastern” economy – which in itself would be an incentive for other countries in defiance of the US dictate to join the east.
The China – Russia – Iran alliance is one of the strongest “eastern axis” – which also provides full energy self-sufficiency to the eastern countries, i.e. the Shanghai Cooperation Organization or SCO.
The association of SCO and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) comprises today about half of the world’s population and controls about a third of the world’s economic output (GDP).
Economic Damage
Nevertheless, China’s economic damage is considerable – work stoppages, limited consumption at home and in many countries a virtual ban on Chinese imports.
The stock market has dropped tremendously due to the Coronavirus outbreak and its economic consequences.
The worst may not yet be over, even if it doesn’t come to a ‘hot’ war…
… which we profoundly trust it will not.
China reacts…
To counteract this economic calamity, the People’s Bank of China (PBC – China’s Central Bank) may consider injecting quickly important amounts of money into China’s economy.
Especially targeting small and medium size enterprises, both public and private.
It would do this through China’s public banking system and other means of direct economic support…
To cut short losses caused by the western-imposed epidemics.
Reduce the risk of economic stagnation and.
Reducing un- or under-employment.
And to (once again) achieve food self-sufficiency.
Diversify China’s suppliers and supply-chains away from the US and western US-allies.
The accent is on food self-sufficiency.
International Trade
For international trade and transfer payments, Chinas Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and the crypto-yuan is expected to gradually increase its acceptance around the world…
… and outrank the western transfer system SWIFT…
… and the US-dollar hegemony which are key instruments the United States uses to impose…
… totally illegal economic sanctions upon countries that dare insisting on their sovereignty. And refuse to submit to Washington’s pressure.
Cases in point are Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, Syria, Sudan – and many more.
These US-led western efforts to weaken China’s economy are also meant to send a discouraging message to all those countries that are planning to divest their reserves and international payment methods away from the US-dollar.
The west will not succeed.
China is far more powerful than the West believes.
Even with the massive
damage caused by the recent coronavirus, China’s economy is steadier and
stronger than that of most western countries, especially the US.
China’s non-confrontational approach to resolve these social – health – and economic issues, will help China to overcome and isolate her aggressive adversaries.
That’s part of the 5000-year old Tao philosophy.
What this all looks like…
As the US is increasing her aggressive stance against China (and Russia) – Washington appears and acts more and more like a dying beast…
… lashing out around itself, trying to bringing down and destroying as much as possible…
… while steadily digging itself deeper into its own (economic) grave.
Sanctions left and right and bio-wars on China – threatening China by surrounding her with some 400 military bases and nuke-equipped warships and planes…
… will not create more confidence in the US, rather the contrary.
Countries and people realize that being aligned and allied with the US of A, is dangerous, can be deadly.
So, they are driven away and towards the east, rather than being attracted by the western sinking ship.
Predictions
Amazingly, western aggression will falter confronting China’s robust social and economic system…
… and more so, China’s peaceful plan to connect and build bridges between the world’s people, nations and cultures…
… through the socioeconomic development scheme of the 21st Century spanning the globe – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also called the New Silk Road.
A way Towards a Shared Future for Mankind.
The Author
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world, including in Palestine, in the fields of environment and water.
Conclusion
I am not alone in the idea that the COVID-19 coronavirus is part of a legion of efforts used by America to thwart and suppress China’s rise. It’s pretty obvious if you look at the big picture and take off you “rose colored glasses”.
What I fear is World War III.
America is run by neocon idiots who believe the lies that they propagandize to the American people.
They are going to destroy the world, and no… America will not escaped unscathed. It will be a Genghis Khan level event. The few future survivors will crawl out of their bunkers and lament this period of time. And they will consider the current American leadership to be the greatest fools in all of humanity.
They had an opportunity to share in the bounty of the world, but instead chose to be the Lord over everything and everyone, and destroyed the entire world in the process.
Perhaps moving to either Iceland or Fiji might make sense at this time. Eh?
I hope you enjoyed this post. I have many more in my Trump Trade Wars Index…
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America today does not resemble anything that is found on the original 1776 United States Constitution. In fact, in many ways, it is the exact opposite of what it was founded as. This is an open fact, and only the most ignorant disagree on this.
Today, the United States is a real mess. It really is. It is an enormous, out of control beast, and no one can tame it. It’s a snarling, nasty critter that is harmful to Americans, and a threat to the rest of the world.
Here, we talk about how America came to be what it is today.
For there are five distinct separate evolutionary periods of American governance. Each one is distinct for all the others before it. They are…
Founded as a Republic.
Changed to a Democracy with the 12th amendment.
Centralized Federal Democracy during the Civil War.
Progressive Social Democracy under President Wilson.
Military Oligarchy under President Lindon Johnson.
Corrupt Military Totalitarian Empire today.
Here we will discuss each time period in turn. What it was like, the benefits, or liabilities, and why it was changed into something different.
We will begin with the start….
Founded as a Republic. (1776)
There is no question that America was founded as a Republic. It is clearly specified as such within the Constitution itself. And the “Federalist Papers” which described (in depth) the reasoning used in the creation of the Constitution.
They abhorred a Democracy and they absolutely did not want America to ever become a Democracy. For they viewed it as “mob rule”, or rule by easily-manipulated rabble.
Their vision was one where the individual States would continue to operate as independent nations. They would have their own flags, their own military, their own laws, and the citizens would be in complete control of their state government.
The Federal Government was intended to be small. It was only intended [1] to be necessary in the case of an external military threat, and to [2] assist in the regulation of trade between the different States.
Nothing Else.
The Federal Government, through the Bill of Rights would establish the framework of “protections” that the various Federal and State governments were forbidden to touch.
The Bill of Rights listed the “untouchable” Rights, and the Ninth Amendment stated that Americans had many, many other Rights. And none of them can be legislated or rules made to curtail them. Thus, the Federal and State governments were limited to what they could do. They could only to what was IMPLICITLY STATED within the Constitution.
America was set up as a Republic. There the Individual was supreme. Second came the States Governments. The Federal Government was intentionally weak and small.
America was a Republic for only a mere 28 years.
Changed to a Democracy with the 12th amendment. (1804)
Well, that did not set well with ambitious and evil men. These people felt that they were better than other people.
Well, they did. (Read their writings.)
They felt that they were smarter, and more capable, and thus should be deserving of extra privileges. And so they strove to change the United States from a Republic into a Democracy.
This is because it is easy to manipulate mobs of people.
Through the manipulation of people, they would increase their power, through the systems inherent in the Constitution.
And this is exactly what happened.
During the first one hundred years, all of the amendments to the Constitution, and the rules and laws laid down in Congress was devoted to four main objectives…
Diluting the voting power of a citizen. (The more people allowed to vole, the less power the individual had.)
Control of the mass “mobs” of citizenry. (Control of the news media meant control of the people.)
Reduction of the influence of State Government.
Increasing Federal Control over the States.
America become a Democracy. And Controls over the manipulation of the citizenry grew, as did the size and scope of the Federal Government.
America was a Democracy for 57 years. The entire time the Federal government grew and grew and grew…
Centralized Federal Democracy during the Civil War. (1861)
This continued for many decades up until the push by the Federal Government became far too large. They kept pushing and pushing, and sooner or later someone was going to get hurt.
The States argued that they had their own sovereignty through the Tenth Amendment.
The Federal Government argued that that was no longer true. That the Bill of Rights was meaningless when you have a strong central federal Government.
They were wrong, of course.
But it did not matter. They were strong and powerful.
When the Southern States banded together to fight the Federal monster, a long Civil War broke out. It lasted four years. And while there were many cries to “free the slaves’, at the root of the matter was whether or not a State can make it’s own laws. (And the ownership of slaves is a State law issue.)
The Civil War settled that.
The individual States no longer were autonomous, and must follow the dictates of the Federal Government.
Thus, the American Government became a singular Federal Government over regional “territories” known as States.
America was a Central Federal Democracy for 52 years.
Progressive Social Democracy under President Wilson. (1913)
Now, For around sixty years or so, the Federal Government grew in size, scope and ambitions. The ideas and the systems laid out in the 1776 Constitution were not sufficient to implement any of the “new” and “progressive modern” ideas. Ideas that were being considered in the elite schools and halls of the “power brokers”. They wanted and felt that some serious structural changes needed to occur.
They longed for the power held by the Kings during the middle ages. They wanted a new and modern version; a Feudal Kingship under the guise of “democracy”. New, modern and progressive; to usher in a new utopia of man over nature.
That’s how they thought.
Enter President Wilson.
President Wilson was the President that extinguished the flame of liberty.
To make a long story short, he was the architect for what America is today. And under his leadership we now have the following realities that are permanently affixed in America today…
Government owns and controls all money.
Citizens are permitted to rent the money.
Ownership of all property belongs to the government.
Making laws and rules were handed over to “agencies”.
The Bill of Rights is just a list of “privileges”.
Americans must work to feed the government.
Yeah it sounds really bad, and it is. But if you distill all the flowery rhetoric and babble-speak, and get down to the raw meat of the issues, that is what it distills into to. And, yes, it’s horribly and very ugly.
But hey! Everyone else was doing it. From Russia, to France, to China. Every ruler wanted full control of their subjects.
America became a Feudal Kingship. People were taught to serve the Federal Government without question. And efforts to spread this type of government around the world began. For “democracy“.
America was a Feudal Kingship under the guise of “democracy” for 50 years. Then it got really bad…
Military Oligarchy under President Lindon Johnson. (1963)
We now know, through the release of the Kennedy Assassination Transcripts that a military coup occurred in 1962. President Lyndon B. Johnson, along with a hodge-podge of other Washington “interests” assassinated a “democratically elected” president.
Immediately after killing the President, America went full-on “HOT” war with Vietnam.
America became the foremost military power in the world and started to exert that power everywhere.
Then they immediately went to war fighting battles all over the world, and funneling money into an Military-industrial organization. An organization that became enormous and powerful.
America became a Military Oligarchy. Much like Hitler and his Nazi’s and Genghis Khan and his hoards of warriors.
America has been a Military Oligarchy for 38 years.
Its’ so out of control, that today we are currently fighting eight simultaneous far-flung wars.
Which brings me to today…
Corrupt Military Totalitarian Empire today. (2001)
It wouldn’t be too bad if it were “out of sight and out of mind”, but events came about that brought war, and military power and control home.
It’s been 19 years since the events of 9-11. We have been a military totalitarian empire ever since.
As America fought these various wars, simultaneous efforts were being made to "bring the Military-Industrial" complex control home domestically. We all can thank President George Bush for this.
Thus America rapidly became a full-on police / surveillance state.
America today is a wild rampaging out-of-control monster that if not contained, will plunge the world into global thermonuclear armageddon.
Domestically, the Bill of Rights no longer functionally exist. Alphabet agencies operate independently and run rough-shod over Americans with impunity. A military organization known as the DHS, operates with the NSA, and CIA / FBI to control the American citizenry. Congress has become outrageous media entertainment. Public works projects have ground to a halt, and the media (from alt-left to alt-right) are controlled by the government and manipulate with impunity.
International efforts are now all centered in [1] controlling strategic materials by proxy (Bolivia, Syria), [2] subduing other nations that might be economic threats (China, and Russia), and [3] fighting other nations wars (Yemen, Liberia) following a for-profit model.
America today is a corrupt Military Totalitarian Empire.
Conclusion
To really change the direction that America in involved in… and it needs to be changed, least the world collapse under the weight of World War III…
…we need to recognize what America is today.
We need to see what it was set up as, and how it was changed, and to put systems in place so that this will NEVER happen again.
And, America must change. This path that it is on is not sustainable.
And, tweaking things to undo the policies of Obama is not enough. We need to undo two centuries of policy changes. And this needs to be supervised by people that understand what “liberty” and “freedom” really are…
…and reporting what you did all year to a government agency is NOT freedom. Nor is asking permission to withdrawal your savings from a bank, wearing a seat-belt, or being forbidden from smoking or drinking large-size sodas. If you need to ask permission to do something or are fearful of government consequences, you are NOT living in freedom.
Any person who does not understand this MOST BASIC of understandings shouldn’t be permitted anywhere near the levers of power.
Real patriots need to take control of this situation, and it will not be organic. It’s not going to “just happen”. Like how each of the five stages of American Governance were well-planned in advance and executed, the same must occur by American patriots. This situation needs to change, and it needs to change soon.
Do not place all your hopes and beliefs on a Trump Presidency. While he is doing some good things Domestically, his International policy is driven by neocons and could actually result in World War III. This would be horrific for everyone.
Nor should you put your hopes in the other end of the spectrum. The Bernie Sanders crowd and all their ilk are dangerous idealists. They want to wind the clock back to feudal serfdom under a modern “enlightened” totalitarian social utopia. This would be horrific for many Americans.
The alternatives are far too frightening to contemplate.
Which is why we need to erase all the changes made since 1789 (The Bill of Rights) and start all over with a “clean slate”.
I hope you enjoyed this little narrative. You can find more, and better, discussions on other SHTF posts, Accessed here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
This is a complete reprint of a most excellent article that I (personally) 100% agree with. In short, regardless as to the events and causes related to the virus, the way that China has handled it and the global reaction to it has been overwhelmingly positive. This and similar trends are pointing in positive directions for China. This article discusses the “fall out” from this event.
This article was published on February 10, 2020 by Fionn Wright – 仁飞扬 and can be found HERE. The only changes that I made was add section headers, and added some illustrative photos. I strongly suggest that the reader visit the original source, and (if possible) follow the author as he has other articles of worth.
Could the Coronavirus make China Stronger than Ever? 10 Trends that Indicate it Will.
The
virus is hitting China’s economy hard, but this is likely only
temporary. China’s immune system is fighting back — building hospitals
in record time, completely locking down a city and most importantly the
entire nation uniting as one voice of support and solidarity.
Mario Cavolo called out the global response to the Coronavirus in his post “Something’s not right here folks” which originally went viral on LinkedIn and then subsequently all over Chinese social media. He compares the media response to Coronavirus with the H1N1 outbreak in the US, saying, “it’s not a conspiracy, it’s just a tragedy,” and “this vicious, political, xenophobic racist attacks and smearing of all things China needs to stop.”
What doesn’t break you only makes you stronger, and the Chinese people are resilient and will find ways to rise out of this crisis, likely coming back even stronger than before. How long that will take no-one yet knows, but the Chinese spirit is not even close to being broken, and we’ve seen how Chinese ingenuity in a time of crisis has led to entirely new operating models…
Remember how Jackie Ma became a billionaire…
During the SARS outbreak in 2003, because everyone was
afraid to go out, Liu Qiangdong, founder of JD (Jing Dong, one of
China’s largest online retailers), moved the physical stores in
Zhongguancun to an online store. Ma Yun saw the demand for e-commerce
and set up Taobao (Alibaba’s B2C commence platform).
Comparison with the 2003 SARS…
To make a comparison with SARS, China’s GDP was 12 trillion yuan in 2003, but 17 years later China’s GDP has reached 100 trillion yuan, so China’s overall anti-risk capability has increased nearly 10x since then.
Interestingly, a few industries are actually booming, from medical to online education to food delivery. The altered ecosystem during the crisis is forcing people to find new ways of accessing what they need.
Short term vs. Long term.
Despite
the short term effects on many industries across China, it is unlikely
to have a long-term destabilizing impact on China’s economy, which is
already in the midst of a major adjustment, and this event will in many
ways accelerate the pace of adjustment towards adaptability and
resilience.
Many of the concepts below are inspired by the famous
Chinese blogger Shuimuran (水木然) and much of the data and research I have
found through Dr. Shirley Yu, Political Economist from Harvard and the London School of Economics.
1 – Off-line Shopping is Over
Although people in China have already formed the habit of online shopping in the last few years, there are still a few types of products that people still prefer to buy offline.
These last few remaining products are likely to virtually disappear in the coming months after this outbreak. For example, before the outbreak people used to go to the market for fresh groceries, but now buying groceries online has also become the norm.
Shopping on-line has been a staple of Chinese life for the last fifteen years. What has changed is that many “untouchable” items like lettuce and snacks are now being bought on line.
Since shopping is done online, the physical store of the future is no longer centered on “selling products”, but with a shift through New Retail to “providing experiences”.
If the physical store is still designed as a place to sell, then it will lose relevance.
No matter what kind of enterprise, it must have an ability to capture customers online, the traditional way of getting customers, such as cold calls or traditional advertising, have less and less power, and will cost more and more.
As New Generation China Expert Michael Norris has been predicting for years, more and more things will start to be free, and more and more things will start to be infinitely closer to zero direct profit, so businesses have to find alternate ways of generating income streams.
Advertising can be charged more, or partnerships can be created to package and bundle products and services, driving people towards what they are most interested in even if its not your product, but making money by doing so.
Human attention is now the most valuable resource on earth.
2 – Online education will start to replace offline education
Suddenly a whole new possibility has opened up. While before online education was used to supplement offline education, we will begin to see online education starting to replace parts of offline education.
Home schooling via computer will displace more traditional teaching methods.
New models of doing this more effectively are being realized at this very moment, and people are beginning to realize that the time it takes to commute is actually valuable time that could be used to learn.
Just as the internet has changed the circulation path of products, it has also changed the path of knowledge transmission.
Online education democratizes superior educational resources, and this is exactly the core problem of solving Chinese education. Previously, each teacher could only teach in front of dozens or at most hundreds of people, but now a single teacher can reach tens or even hundreds of thousands of people online, and these students come from all over the country, including undeveloped areas that have internet access.
Working remotely will become the norm rather than the exception.
The office leasing market in 2020 will likely drop, with the potential exception of co-working spaces despite the WeWork fiasco.
Online office software will accelerate in popularity, especially the office software that can realize collaborative work. What follows is the online office model. An online China is coming, and China will become the global benchmark for a new kind of office.
Entirely new collaborative tools and features will be released and updated at lighting speed.
Areas of the developed world, such as in Africa, will leapfrog the developed world in adopting these as they have done with digital currencies, and thus in some areas become more competitive.
4 – A More Health Conscious Society Based on Biotech
Chinese people will begin to move their focus away from making money, sacrificing their health for money, seeing the limitations of the 996 work schedule.
Physical and mental health will be the key indicator of a person’s value in the future, and Chinese people will make more conscious decisions about their lifestyles.
The identification, judgment and response of the virus will promote the breakthrough of the whole medicine and medical technology, especially to enhance the awareness and attention of the whole nation on the power of biotech.
This outbreak has shown us the importance of a scientific medical system.
At least initially, the news from Wuhan was all about the shortage of medical resources. The core of medical problems lie in the effective allocation of medical resources, the scheduling ability of medical resources at critical moments, and the coordination and sharing of medical resources.
The social credit network tied to surveillance for safety and security will expand to include health of individuals.
The government will know who is sick when, and sometimes before the individual may even be aware of it themselves. This could come directly in the form of infrared cameras to capture people within a crowd with a fever, or indirectly in the form of the types of products that people buy, predicting health indicators based on big data of others who regularly consume those products.
Thanks to the virus, infrared cameras are now monitoring people at all cross-roads and place of population density. This is useful in the quick and rapid determination of who is sick and who is not.
The healthier one is, through healthy eating, buying health related products and perhaps even exercise equipment or classes, the more likely one is to perform well and be less of a burden on society. This is tricky to measure but as more data rolls in and is analyzed, conclusions can be tested, measured and implemented in rapid iterations.
5 – Accelerated Integration of Smart Cities
Wuhan
is a city with a population of over 11 million, has nine provinces and
was locked down during the Spring Festival travel rush, the largest yearly migration of people on planet earth.
If the situation of every citizen in Wuhan is known, every person can
be accurately tracked and every outflow can be located, then we will
deal with it in a more orderly way.
Facial recognition and social scoring (all tied to police records) is now automatic in Chinese cities. This coupled with video monitoring of dissidents are a powerful tool to combat crime. As was illustrated during the HK riots when the Trump administration officials were tracked, monitored, and recorded cutting deals, and training the “pro-democracy” terrorists.
China’s futuristic smart cities include: traffic management, logistics supply chain, emergency preparedness, and information traceability, which will be fully data-based, and even equipped with artificial intelligence disaster preparedness prediction.
This reflects the management level of the whole society.
With smart cities, China will have more data-backed scientific means of governance.
Modern governance is more and more based on data, with the health and security of the people as the first consideration.
Chinese monitoring software.
After this outbreak, the country will learn from experience and lessons learned, analyze what worked well and develop new systems to build the learnings into the fabric of society.
After this outbreak, we will have the speed of strategic coordination, the speed of wartime research and development, and the speed of public security response.
The advantages of China’s logistics have been fully demonstrated, and supplies in Wuhan have been quickly replenished. Even scarce medical resources have been deployed efficiently across the country, which is truly a miracle of modern logistics.
Alibaba has set up a special fund of 1 billion yuan for medical supplies, which is used to purchase medical supplies at home and abroad.
In addition to the company’s global resource search, Chinese people around the world also launched a global procurement, a batch of supplies from different countries from different flights to China.
The seemingly “frozen” China is actually engaged in epic strategic material allocation. After this outbreak, we will see China’s strategic material coordination capacity not just in crisis but throughout the entire business world.
7 – China has Contingency Plans for its Contingency Plan
In the annual Central Economic Work Conference report formulating economic priorities for 2020, China has emphasized the necessity to be ready for a “contingency plan” for 2020.
This contingency plan would in no way be framed on the basis of a liberal market model, in the event that the “China Model” failed to deliver on what was intended.
In 2019, strategic relationships were developed between Alibaba, Tencent, and the largest state infrastructure and telecom organizations, to help the state upgrade its technological competitiveness as it develops the Belt and Road Initiative.
The “contingency plan” proactively drives China’s economic independence from the US.
This contingency plan is not about market liberalism, but rather increasing state control.
The trade war directly impacts China’s labor market, as manufacturers move out of China. China is recalibrating its global supply chain routes, primarily focusing on its Belt and Road Initiative as well as the EU, to compensate for the loss of trade-related jobs.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The guiding principle from President Xi for China’s booming real estate sector, that properties are for living (within) not (for) investment, will continue in 2020.
There are currently 400 million middle income class (people) in China, and by 2035 (this) is expected to double to 800 million.
In order to drive sustainable consumption in China, structural reforms will need to happen in its healthcare, social welfare and pension systems so the middle class can afford to save less and spend more.
The participation of individuals, enterprises, public welfare organizations and Chinese at home and abroad has formed a systematic collaboration on a scale the human species has never seen before.
China built this second hospital in Wuhan in another ten days.
This creates a global ecosystem of Chinese that can support one another in times of crisis and cooperate when things settle down.
There is also an increasing realization that China is speeding ahead of the rest of the world…
… and it’s verified by Chinese who live or regularly travel abroad, constantly sharing memes of how backwards and slow the “developed world” actually is in many ways.
San Francisco, USA.
This strengthens national pride and solidarity within China, even though they see the benefits of being abroad like healthy air, safe food and uncrowded scenic nature sites.
9 – Chinese Companies will Push to Expand Abroad
Chinese companies will start looking more actively to do business abroad to diversify their markets the same way a wise investor diversifies his portfolio to dampen the effect of a crisis.
Huawei is leading the pack here swimming upstream against a lot of pressure, and doing remarkably well despite the international controversy. But Huawei is just the first of many Chinese companies that will expand beyond its borders in the next decade.
Not all companies have the resilience or reach of Huawei and will direct their attention more towards developing economies who are more open to Chinese products.
We’ll see more examples of Chinese companies like this that leverage the advantages of the Chinese tech infrastructure and applying them to meet the unmet needs of markets outside China, particularly developing economies.
The familiarity and integration with these forms of infrastructure will give them an advantage that will make it difficult for Western competitors to compete with. This will be similar in the same way that it has been difficult over the last decade for Chinese companies to compete with the likes of Google, Facebook or Apple. Of course, due to market penetration and foundational platforms that gave them the edge.
Huawei influence map.
Of the 195 sovereign nations recognized by the UN, Huawei currently has contractual relationships with 172 countries, engulfing the developing world.
The top strategic priority for Huawei will be to capture the developed world in 2020.
American proxies; independent nations in name only.
Whether Huawei’s push through Europe can succeed will be a fundamental test of China’s technological power as well as a test of the increasingly fragile relationships of the West.
The UK, against the will of the US, has now partially let Huawei in to develop their 5G infrastructure, but is doing their best to keep them out of areas that may compromise national security.
One challenging event at the beginning of 2020, while it has slowed China down, is not going to stop China from reaching its goal of being a fully developed country by 2050.
Girl takes a selfie with a Chinese robot.
Seen on the scale of decades, or the Chinese long-term view of centuries, the coronavirus crisis will be but a blip on the radar.
Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has encountered a host of disasters, and yet remains an indomitable nation, rising from abject poverty in the last few decades, returning to reclaim its place as one of the most powerful countries on earth.
This outbreak is an opportunity for China to evolve. It will be a test of China’s economic and social relations, its people and government relations, and China’s relations with the world.
China has already impressed the world with its ability to rapidly mobilize at scale to build the hospitals in Wuhan, and these moves are but a small taste of what is to come.
Let’s support the Chinese people in this time of crisis. The #ChinaDream starts in China, but will end up supporting the dreams of those all over the world.
With love and gratitude,
#Fionn
_______
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My Conclusions
You will not see anything like this on the American media. Whether it is the main-steam media, the Alt-Left or the Alt-Right media. But just because the media will not provide similar articles does not mean that the events are not occurring.
This is what is REALLY going on.
American media is designed to control, corral and manipulate the American citizenry. Much like the old former Soviet propaganda was used against the Russian people. You can see this when the media is reporting on events that you, yourself, are witnessing with your own two eyes.
But, you know, Americans do need to see the world as it actually is.
Some of it might be pleasant to observe, while others are ugly.
Some like the Uighur situation are “opportunities” for great wealth-building. If you are educated, and aware of what is really going on, you can become filthy rich, instead of the force-fed anti-China narrative and hide in fear about “re-education camps and the poor abused Muslims”.
Others, are signs of danger that you must take heed of, like the risks of hiring “diversity experts” (in a company) instead of talented experienced engineers, scientists and designers. (You know, for diversity, and to fight “white privilege”.)
For Americans to survive the growth pains of a new global situation, they must be educated through sources no longer tainted by the manipulative oligarchy. I do hope that you learn something in what I have to say.
The world is not a horrible, deep dark place, but there are under-currents of events that are transpiring that only the strong, the well-equipped and the flexible can survive.
So be strong. Be flexible. Be well equipped.
Take care, and BEST REGARDS.
Metallicman ready to take on the coronavirus.
If you enjoyed this post, fell free to check out some similar posts on my China index…
You’ll not find
any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
One of the often cited misconceptions that many Americans have is that China would collapse if the United States were to stop trading with her. The idea is that “China needs us more than we need them”. It’s not true, and it’s not even remotely true. Here, is the actual import data that China imports from the United States. Take a good long hard look at it.
China could very well have an embargo of the United States, and would do just fine.
The items that China imports from the United States.
Here’s a graphical summary.
While most Americans, and certainly most Alt-Right conservative Americans are under the impression that China imports an enormous amount of good from the United States, this is not the case.
Import data on what China imports broken down by type and classification.
Key Points
By looking at the graph above, the only manufactured items that are of significance to China (from the United States) are aircraft. Other manufactured products actually represent a very tiny percentage of imports by type. For instance, American-made machines represent only 5% of the total machines imported by China.
Conclusion
In the global sphere of things, the United States is not a dominant supplier of things that China wants or needs. Therefore, America has very little leverage to influence China to do its’ bidding.
In order to cajole or manipulate the Chinese government to take on positions that America wants, there has to be other systems in play. These manipulations and adjustments of global power projection such as [1] the threat of war, [2] famine, [3] sickness, or [4] regional revolt are the tools that the United States is, and has been, using to force China to bend to it’s will.
It is not at all outlandish to believe that the CIA, NED, the NID and other arms of the enormous United States bureaucracy has a “dark hand” at play at this time. It’s the only “cards” that America can play.
If you enjoyed this, you might want to see other posts on this subject in my China general index here…
You’ll not find
any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
No. This article is not about America. So it is an outlier. In truth, America lost that role decades ago. It lost it when it decided to embrace something other than it’s charter. The moment when the government stopped serving it’s people, it became something else. Nope. This is about China. Communist China to be exact.
What is put forth is going to anger many, but that’s to be expected.
This article is not about America. It is about nations that obey their charter to serve the needs of their people. Over the last century many nations have failed at this charter, and as a result created an internal rise in nationalism. As such we are covering China, for they are a serious nation that cares for it’s people.
We are in the midst of titanic changes and shifts on the global stage. These changes will be uncomfortable for some, but will open up amazing opportunities for others. It’s all going to boil down to an awareness of the way things really are, as opposed to what we are instructed to believe.
We look at things as they actually are.
Here, we address this issue. In fact, we address it with the largest and most successful nation in the history of the world; China. Not America.
The size of China’s displacement of the world balance is such that the world must find a new balance. It is not possible to pretend that this is just another big player. This is the biggest player in the history of the world.
-Lee Kwan Yew.
China is the biggest player in the history of the world.
This narrative doesn’t fit the nonsense spewed out from the American media by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, it is the truth. American media serves a purpose; to control Americans. Not to inform.
American media serves a purpose; to control Americans. Not to inform.
In 2003 Godfree Roberts (Check out his site UNZ.com.) published a book charting America’s decline in thirty-six social and economic indicators. It’s a great read, but is out of date. Today, the decline is quite pronounced, and disturbing.
Back in 2003, he mailed copies to the Bush Administration, Congress and department heads. For all effort, he only received one reply. Only one singular reply. No one else even bothered to say “thanks for the book“. It was like talking to a brick wall.
The singular reply was from the Director General of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He said that the Agency had been providing almost identical information to the government for decades. But no one, apparently was concerned. The administration at that time felt…
The global New World Order was a good thing.
America is strong and will always be strong.
America can bend the rest of the world to fit it’s model of perfection. The CIA, NED and the rest can instigate proxy wars on anyone that steps out of line.
Since then our decline and China’s rise have both accelerated and momentum has carried us so far so quickly that today it is too late. Global competition against China (at this stage) is unrealistic. China is far too strong and far too capable. They are not a nation to trifle with.
Most of the rest of the world realizes this.
The BRI with its multiple proposed pillars extending beyond infrastructure development (including free trade, financial integration, people-to-people connections) appears to have the potential to transform the ever-challenging region between Europe and China.
In this regard it is important to avoid confrontational ideology and focus on the areas of mutual interest (facilitating a non-discriminatory regulatory environment, the convergence of technical/SPS standards, greater cost efficiency and sustainability of investment projects), as well as avoid imposing ‘either-or’ choices on the countries along the New Silk Road.
The long-run objective of facilitating peace and prosperity in the still problematic regions of Central Asia and the Middle East is in the common interest of China, the EAEU and the EU.
- China’s Belt and Road Initiative: opportunity or threat?
We look at things as they actually are.
Reality vs. Illusion
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If China resembled the caricature our media has drawn for the last seven decades then yes, we can compete against her and be victorious. If they are a real joke… a real third-world shit-hole… and a population of dog-eating communists…well yes. Yes we can compete against her. Easy.
Easy peasy. Lemon squeezy.
The Global Attitudes Spring 2016 survey by US-based Pew Research Center said nearly 60 per cent of the Chinese think that territorial dispute between China and its neighboring countries could lead to a military conflict, while 45 per cent see the power and influence of the US as a major threat.
We could make an example of her.
We could show the world how American democracy can compete against China. China, that evil and backwards third-world shit-hole with her repressive, extractive, authoritarianism. And we could invest our bounty in advanced technologies to ensure that we remain the envy of the world.
We can show the world with our large fine and massive military, our state of the art aircraft carriers, and our space adventures where we capture a dishwasher-sized asteroid and put it in orbit about the moon.
We can show off our state of the art health care, our humane treatment of illegals, and our fair and just government. We could show the world how talented, serious and no-nonsense our freely elected officials are. We could do all this and more.
We could show the world our network of high speed rail, our wonderful and cost effective medical care systems, and our institutes of higher learning that run on merit and produce the brightest and best that the world can offer.
But…
What if our assumptions are all wrong?
Shanghai is a typical Chinese first tier city.
Think about it. What if the media is lying to us? What if FOX news lies just as bad as CNN? What then?
What if China is neither repressive, extractive nor authoritarian?
What if we have no bounty left to invest? What if it has been squandered by the generations before us and nothing much is left?
What if Chinese leaders are more popular, respected and competent than ours?
What if her economy is thirty percent bigger and growing three times faster, with one-third the debt burden?
What if she is already ahead of us scientifically and technologically?
What if she is militarily impregnable, with weapons or mass destruction that rivals (or are superior) to our own?
What if China has and possesses more–and more powerful–allies than we do?
What should we do then? What could we do?
Think about this situation. Pause. Think. Look at the facts in a true and real context. Look at the world, the globe, as an ever changing organism with constantly moving lines of power and control. Look at what happens when nations, people, and systems grow and change. Look at China today.
Here’s an inventory:
Government
“If people have no faith in their rulers then the state cannot exist.”
- Confucius
As an American, our trust in our government is at its lowest point in history. It is rock bottom, scraping and mired in the sludge at the very bottom of the barrel.
Gallup says most of us rank government as our most pressing problem. All that I can say to that is…”Duh!”.
So in America, the majority of people do not trust the government, the institutions that they represent and support, and the media that reports about their actions. Very precious few American people trust their government and their institutions.
America was founded on the principle that the government was made by the people, and it’s sole purpose is to serve the people. If Americans do not trust the government, then that means that it is NOT servicing the people and they are not happy about it. This is a serious concern, and should not be taken lightly.
America, by just about every indicator, is a nation that does not serve it’s people. The government functions within an isolated “bubble” much like France was before the French Revolution, or like Russia before the Communist Revolution. People know this, and do not trust the government.
America, by just about every indicator, is a nation that does not serve it’s people. The government functions within an isolated “bubble” much like France was before the French Revolution, or like Russia before the Communist Revolution. People know this, and do not trust the government.
Do you? Do you, dear reader, do you trust the American government? Do you believe them? Do you think that they have your best interests at heart?
If the government raised your taxes (again), would it end up improving your life? If they seized all your firearms, would you feel safer at night? If they banned something else, would you believe that your personal life was improved?
Most Americans would say no.
America, by just about every indicator, is a nation that does not serve it’s people. The government functions within an isolated “bubble” much like France was before the French Revolution, or like Russia before the Communist Revolution.
Don’t you think this is a problem?
Meanwhile, China’s system of professional, non-factional government has returned it to its traditional role as the Central Kingdom.
Compared to ours, China’s government is forward-looking, decentralized, efficient and thrifty.
For instance, the Government Entrance Examination selects the top 2% of graduates each year and success is the only avenue to power, responsibility.
The Chinese Government Entrance Examination selects the top 2% of graduates each year and success is the only avenue to power, responsibility.
While in America it is completely different. In America it is well-promoted "blue bloods" (family dynasties) that are promoted and elected by mob rule through corporate media promotion.
The 200 members of the State Council, all promoted on their ability to work cooperatively, have collectively governed billions of people for a combined 5,000 years and their publicly available statistics are jaw-dropping.
Most of the Chinese leadership in Beijing have a PhD.
Most of the Chinese leadership in Beijing has an IQ over 140.
All of the leadership began their careers in the country’s poorest villages.
All of the Beijing leadership stayed in their home villages, and were only able to leave once they raised local incomes by 50%.
They repeated that performance at every level, including the presidency, as Xi Peng is doing.
Most of the American government are members of a private club of "elites". They have an enormous bureaucracy that services them that are culled by ideology.
American university and agency entrance exams have done away with placement though merit. In the interests of inclusion and diversity, positions are filled by "other criteria". It "improves" America, don't you know.
As a result, the people of China (contrary to the anti-Chinese propaganda in the American media) trust their government.
Chinese people trust their government because they had bettered their lives for three generations. The people also have a bright future to look forward to.
China is super patriotic, and who can blame them. Just about everyone is living light-years better than their parents did at their age.
Chinese people trust their government because they had bettered their lives for three generations. The people also have a bright future to look forward to.
They know that peace and stability are essential to achieve what China has achieved and requires strong leadership to do this. They therefore like a strong leader and they see this in President Xi Jinping.
They trust their government also because not only have they delivered but more importantly create an environment whereby they can improve their lives. The equal opportunity for everyone to raise their wealth and living standards are all there for people to witness.
They are now ready to be self sufficient and not dependent on the US for export to improve their economy and the latter does not like it. The US is seen by the Chinese people as attempting to thwart their progress. This is spurring the Chinese people to unite behind their leaders and providing them with incentive to work harder and more innovatively to beat the US.
- Louis Lim.
China is super patriotic. So most Americans need to forget the media-promoted illusion that the Chinese are ready to leap into the arms of “democracy”. It’s not the case, and is a big lie.
Impromptu show of patriotism in a mall in Hong Kong. While all of Western media are focusing on the radicals storming the subways lines, destroying things, and dressed in Antifa black wearing Antifa black masks, and behaving like BLM radicals, the rest of Hong Kong is more like this. They are proud of their nation, proud of their country, and proud of their heritage.
Leadership
In America, we choose leaders by acclamation–a Greco-Roman custom favoring eloquent rascals–and that is exactly what we have.
Rascals.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – AUGUST 22: California Lt. Gov. and California gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom looks on as he visits the Alice Griffith Apartments on August 22, 2018 in San Francisco, California. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and San Francisco mayor London Breed toured a low-income housing complex. Newsom leads Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox by an average of 23 percentage points in recent polls. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
It’s so bad, and so outrageous, that they are no longer trying to hide their crimes. The rich, and powerful know that they can get away with things with impunity. They are no longer giving a care as to what others think.
“China’s leaders are much smarter than ours. It’s like taking the New England Patriots and Tom Brady and having them play your high school football team.”
While this is covered above, it should not be overlooked. The Chinese is a true merit-based society. The government is run by intelligent leadership. Not hand-puppets of the oligarchy. And while America has an enormous career bureaucracy, it is nowhere as talented or driven as the Chinese.
Nor are American leaders policed. For in China, all government officials are under observation by the “Corruption Police”.
Three more officials have been given the chop as part of China’s anti-corruption drive. The disgraced politicians are the latest in a string of purges of former aides to Zhou Yongkang, China’s retired chief of domestic security, fueling speculation that Zhou will eventually face charges.
Ji Wenlin, former deputy governor of Hainan, and Yu Gang, former senior official in the Politics and Legal Affairs Commission, have both been expelled from the Communist Party for taking “huge bribes” and committing adultery, announced the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on Wednesday.
Adultery, while not illegal in China, is considered a serious violation of Party regulations.
The third official charged with corruption is Tan Hong, a former senior officer in the Ministry of Public Security.
All three have close ties to Zhou, working under the security czar at some point during their careers. Zhou was a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top decision-making body, until he retired in 2012. He was considered one of the most powerful men in China, serving as the head of China’s security and police institutions.
On China: Tigers and flies
On China: Tigers and flies 01:52
On China: fashion and corruption
In America, the opposite is true. In Washington, it’s a free-for-all of corruption and abuse.
However, in China, all government officials, their aides, and support personnel are all under the careful watchful eyes of the “corruption police”. The Chinese do not want rampant corruption to reach the levels of 2004 in China, or what it is in America today. So they have taken aggressive and proactive steps to ensure that this will not happen.
In 2013, some 182,000 officials were disciplined while courts nationwide tried 23,000 corruption cases, according to the CCDI.
After coming into power in late 2012, President Xi Jinping banned official extravagance — from banquets to year-end gifts — and vowed to target “tigers and flies” alike in his fight against corruption when describing his resolve to spare no one regardless of their position.
Given the high levels of corruption in the American government, one can really wonder American-based criticism of Chinese attempts at curbing corruption.
Since Donald Trump become President there has been exactly zero arrests, and zero prosecutions for the thousands of felonies committed in the last ten years. His DOJ head Jeff Sessions, did nothing. And the current Attorney General, Mr. Barr seems to be heading in the same direction.
Economies.
Today, China generates 20% of global GDP vs. our 15%, its imports and exports are in balance, its trading relationships are excellent, its currency fairly valued, its economy one third larger and growing three times faster, its manufacturing wages at parity with ours and its plans for 2025 are breathtaking.
Share of the world economic output. Including forecasts.
What is China? New highways, railways, subways and ports and, next year, the fastest, most advanced Internet and entire cities built around 5G. Meanwhile, 6G development is well in progress and there is a race on it’s development and implementation.
The infrastructure comparison is stark, and alerting.
What is America?
Not much. $77,000,000,000 for high speed rail, and all anyone has to show for it is an army of attorneys demanding more fees, fifteen miles of partially completed tracks and a cardboard mock-up.
China started it’s High Speed Rail plan at the same time as the United States did. Today it is everywhere and super convenient. In America it is no where to be found.
Chinese high speed rail is very commonplace. It goes just about everywhere, and is cheap, clean and affordable.
America can’t even build a simple fence on it’s border. I mean, don’t you know, that’s a purely dysfunctional government you all. (I turn my head and spit on the ground.) It’s all totally fucked up. It’s a train-wreck, and getting worse.
China, well, that bridge that connects Hong Kong to Zhuhai is an amazing civil construction feat that is beyond the abilities of Americans. Fact.
Zhuhai to Hong Kong Bridge.
Geopolitics.
In 2018 China’s 34% world approval rating beat America’s 31% and Gallup says, “As the global balance of soft power continues to shift, it may prove even more difficult for the US to counter this influence.”
They are focusing their attention on Eurasia and, Zbigniew Brzezinski warned…
“Control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa’s subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania (Australia) geopolitically peripheral to the world’s central continent. Seventy-five percent of the world’s people live in Eurasia and most of the world’s physical wealth is there too, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of the world’s known energy resources.”
We ceded control of Crimea and the Black Sea to Russia and, increasingly, the Middle East, too.
With the Belt and Road, China and Russia are amalgamating numerous alignments.
The Eurasian Economic Union.
(Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Russia with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Moldova in consideration)
The Shanghai Cooperative Organization, SCO.
(Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, China, and Pakistan; with Afghanistan, Iran, Mongolia and Belarus as observers and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey as dialog partners)
(Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand).
Once the Nord Stream II and South Stream pipelines are completed in December, how can the EU resist joining them?
The Belt and Road Initiative is a global development strategy adopted by the Chinese government involving infrastructure development and investments in 152 countries and international organizations in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas. The leader of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, originally announced the strategy during official visits to Indonesia and Kazakhstan in 2013.
This plan, the Road and Belt Initiative, has been in the works for decades, and it’s implementation has taken years. It’s just another example of how China plans. They do so generationally – 25 years in advance. America plans by financial quarter – three months in advance.
China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is not only the most ambitious and all-encompassing economic development project in the history of humanity but also the core of what is likely to be China's grand strategy for the twenty-first century. It aims to connect China and Europe in a web of roads, high-speed rail, power lines, ports, pipelines, fiber-optic lines and other infrastructure with the goal of stimulating growth in the scores of developing countries in between. New maritime trade corridors provide China with new shipping alternatives while offering its less developed western, northern and southwestern provinces easier access to new markets. While the initiative offers China great strategic and economic benefits it also offers hope to the struggling economies of Europe, Asia and Africa.
Yet, despite the magnitude and promise of the initiative and its interface with almost every region in which the United States has strategic interests – the Middle East, South China Sea, India-Pakistan, Eastern Europe and Central Asia to name a few – Washington has largely ignored it, and in some cases it even took active measures to undermine it.
- Dr. Gal Luft
After trying to derail it, the United States decided to create their own version. This United States version is loosely structured on providing funds in USD to member nations in exchange for their “loyalty” to the United States in a slew of areas. So far, as of November 2019, only Australia signed on.
The Chinese Road and Belt Initiative will transform the globe in a better and stable way. It will surround China with growing nations with thriving middle classes that are economically tied to China.
“America will need to sell $12 Trillion of bonds in the coming decade. Who on earth–or in global finance–will buy this looming mountain of Treasuries, the US borrowing requirement even before Trump’s major upgrade of America’s weapons systems?"
Who is willing to buy one billion dollars in US bonds, let alone one trillion dollars worth? Who, which nation, can afford twelve trillion in bonds? Jupiter?
For reasons outside of fiscal responsibility, the United States government has been borrowing money for everyone on the planet. These borrowing needs [will all] eventually have to be financed in the context of already high global dollar debt exposure.
What it does show is what then Senator Barack Obama eloquently described in 2006: “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies.”
The reality is that at some point, sooner or later, we will have to pay back the money we’re borrowing. The longer we wait to do this, the more painful it will be to do so. The victims of all this are America’s youth. Peter Welch and his 189 cohorts in the House, his allies in the press, and anyone else who supports this fiscal insanity seem to have no moral problem sticking our children and grandchildren with a tab that will dramatically diminish our kids’ future standard of living. This is intergenerational theft. There’s nothing noble or courageous about it.
One of America’s biggest hedge funds privately concluded that in five years’ time the Treasury will need to sell bonds equivalent to 25 percent of gross domestic product, up from 15 per cent now.
This level of debt has occurred just twice in the past 120 years, first during the second world war and then again during the 2008 financial crisis”.
China’s External Debt accounted for 14.4 % of the country’s Nominal GDP in 2018, compared with the ratio of 14.5 % in the previous year. China’s External Debt: % of Nominal GDP data is updated yearly, available from Dec 1985 to Dec 2018. The data reached an all-time high of 17.1 % in Dec 2014 and a record low of 5.1 % in Dec 1985.
Russia and China have no foreign debt (only domestic debt), and at that, China has abundant savings and carries a debt burden one-third America’s or the EU’s.
Science.
Their natural genetic encoded ten IQ point advantage over Americans means that they have 600,000 people with 160 IQ, compared to only 30,000 in America.
Here is the average IQ of more than 80 countries. These numbers came from a work carried out from 2002 to 2006 by Richard Lynn , a British Professor of Psychology, and Tatu Vanhanen , a Finnish Professor of Political Science, who conducted IQ studies in more than 80 countries. On average, children from Asian countries get about a 107 IQ relative to American norms. Tracking and following through on the comparisons in society and the importance of education, we end up with these trends as illustrated.
China dominates a global ranking of the most-cited research papers published in the 30 hottest technology fields.
Though the U.S. accounted for 3.9 million research papers overall compared with 2.9 million from China, the Asian country produced the largest share in 23 of the 30 fields that drew the most interest, while America took the crown for the remaining seven.
Presently, China spends more on R&D than Japan, Germany, and South Korea combined, and only trails the United States in terms of gross expenditure. In 2016, China’s spending accounted for roughly 20 percent of global R&D expenditure. According to some estimates, China will overtake the US as the top R&D spender by 2020.
As we can infer from the chart, the social groups controlling our surplus used it for non-productive, ego-satisfying purposes which distributed the surpluses to consumption but did not provide more effective methods of production.
In China you must compete and be the best, otherwise you will spend the rest of your life begging in the streets. There are no prizes for fifth or sixth place, and no allowances for minorities or diversity quotas.
China is the most influential country in four of eight core scientific fields, ranking first in computer science, mathematics, materials science and engineering and is rapidly catching up in physics.
The U.S. led in physics, environmental and earth sciences, basic life science and clinical medicine. And each year, the USA lead drops far, far behind.
Pretty good for elementary school students. Try to have an American fifth-grader design and build a robot from scratch.
As impressive as all this is, let me underline a very significant point. After 12 to 16 hours of studying, the typical Chinese student will squeeze in a job, or labor to help with the family. Try to find an American student willing to put up with this kind of pace, or familial expectations.
Young lady working after school, still wearing her school uniform.
Twenty years ago Samuel Huntington said,
“Civilizations grow because they have an instrument of expansion, a military, religious, political, or economic organization that accumulates surplus and invests it in productive innovations and they decline when they stop the application of surplus to new ways of doing things. In modern terms we say that the rate of investment decreases.
This happens because the social groups controlling the surplus have a vested interest in using it for non-productive but ego-satisfying purposes which distribute the surpluses to consumption but do not provide more effective methods of production.”
To the rest of the world, Americans are seemingly looking more and more like a parody of idiocracy.“
Americans are seemingly looking more and more like a parody of idiocracy. Our government, based upon the ideas of “modern progressive thought” has allowed a dangerous oligarchy to take over. This has created a global oligarchy that services the top 1% of the world globally. It serves no one else. When another nation, China, improves upon the model, the American reaction is disgust and fear. But, you know, it need not be the case. Learn. Adapt, and adjust.
Technology.
Two thirds of the world’s fastest computers are Chinese but nothing reveals the emptiness of our IP closet more than Chinese dominance of enhanced mobile broadband.
We will take twice as long and spend twice as much integrating a less affordable, functional, compatible, upgradeable system.
5G is the next generation of mobile broadband, which will replace or augment its 4G/LTE predecessor and will set the stage for 6G service. The company that can get ahead in 5G will be able to have more market control over 6G service in the future.
The benefits of 5G are faster download and upload speeds, and other measures of network efficiency like latency. These faster download and upload speeds will be essential for processing and moving large amounts of data for services like autonomous vehicles.
Huawei technologies, the Chinese tech company, has been aggressively pursuing 5G dominance, adding the most technical contributions to the 5G standard at international conferences where what 5G is and how it will be implemented is outlined. The company has added more than 11,000 technical contributions to the 5G standard. Swedish telecoms company, Ericsson, has added the second most to the standard, adding over 10,000 technical contributions.
Yet our feckless media derided President Trump when he called for America to dominate 6G, despite the publicly known fact that Huawei has had 600 mathematicians, physicists and engineers working on 6G for over a year.
China leads the world in most of the top ten ‘hot’ fields like battery research and accounted for more than seventy percent of all papers on photocatalysts and nucleic-acid-targeted cancer treatment, which ranked 12th and 14th.
“Approximately 72% of the academic patent families published in QIT since 2012 have been from Chinese universities. US universities are a distant second with 12%.”
China will overtake the US in the most-cited 50% of Artificial Intelligence research papers this year, the top 10% of research papers next year, and the top 1% by 2025.
Six of the eleven AI unicorns are Chinese.
Unicorn (finance) A unicorn isaprivatelyheldstartup company valuedatover $1 billion. Thetermwascoinedin 2013 byventurecapitalistAileenLee, choosingthemythicalanimaltorepresentthestatisticalrarityofsuchsuccessfulventures.
- Unicorn (finance) - Wikipedia
We have no entrants in quantum encryption or face recognition, nor 100 mph maglev subways, nor lossless power transmission. We are so far behind in those fields that it’s not even tying to begin with.
Aerospace: China launched more space missions in 2018 than Russia or America and its first indigenous airliner will take to the air this year, despite FAA foot-dragging. It is the world’s leading provider of UAVs and the largest manufacturer and exporter of light combat aircraft. Now that its WS-15 fighter jet engine is in production, its J-20 will out-carry and out-speed our fighters.
China’s newest warplane, the J-20 stealth fighter, will make its first public flight at the Zhuhai Air Show, its manufacturer announced on Monday, as Beijing flexes its long-range military muscles.
The J-20, “which military enthusiasts at home and abroad have watched closely”, will make its first public flight demonstration, said Tan Ruisong, the president of China’s state aerospace company AVIC.
China trailed the world in aerospace technology 20 years ago, he told a press conference, but was now at the leading edge.
Swift, stealthy, and armed with long-range missiles, the new J-20s+ represent a leap forward in China’s ability to project power in Asia and compete in capabilities with the United States.
Ocean engineering. China is the go-to builder for LNG transporters and naval vessels that require technical expertise (the USN approached it about building a floating dock) It designs, builds and operates the most powerful surface combatants afloat, the Type 55 cruiser, ensuring that its claims in the South China Sea and the East China Sea will not be contested.
At a time when the United States Navy is struggling to determine the future of its Navy, China has been quietly building up its naval forces. The People’s Liberation Army Navy has risen to be the second largest navy in the world by tonnage. It’s not just quantity that China is after, but the also the quality of its ships. Case in point is China’s newest warship to be launched, the Type 55 destroyer. With this warship, China has produced a destroyer larger, more powerful, and far more capable than its predecessors.
Advanced railway equipment: China leads in all aspects of railway engineering and wins the bulk of global rail contracts. The first of five low speed maglev lines has completed testing and two more will open this year.
High-speed rail (HSR) in China consists of a network of passenger-dedicated railways designed for speeds of 250–350 km/h (155–217 mph). It is the world’s longest high speed railway network, and is also the most extensively used. Over 2,800 pairs of bullet trains numbered by G, D or C run daily connecting over 550 cities in China and covering 33 of the country’s 34 provinces.
Energy-saving and new energy vehicles: China leads the world in batteries and electric cars and has more than 20 manufacturers competing to survive.
While Tesla engineers have been gradually adding autonomous capabilities to its electric stable, Chinese firm LeEco has gone one step further and announced a car that can do it right from the off.
The LeSEE, announced last night in China, managed to drive itself out of a shipping container and on to the stage with little more than a few voice commands spoken into a smartphone by CEO Jia Yueting. It even reversed, too.
Power equipment: China leads the world in basic research and manufacturing of renewable energy and nuclear energy and installed more renewable and nuclear power last year than the rest of the world combined. It owns the market for long distance UHV transmission.
Ultrahigh-voltage (UHV) electricity transmission has been used in China since 2009 to transmit both AC and DC electricity over long distances separating China’s energy resources and consumers. Expansion of both AC and DC capacity continues in order to match generation to consumption demands while minimizing transmission losses.
MaterialsScience. China’s share of the most cited nanoscience papers grows 22% annually and overtook the US in 2014. Its contribution–in quantity and quality–is now greater than the rest of the world’s combined. Most of the world’s graphene is manufactured in China, home to most graphene startups and the country is even with us in nanomaterial development.
Biomedicine and high-performance medical devices. Judged by papers in 82 high-quality research journals, China is the second leading contributor to biomedical engineering articles after the US and will overtake us in three years.
China has become the top destination for research involving these animals, which are invaluable models for studying human disease. Other countries do not breed the primates in such large numbers or to the standard produced in China. “Some 95% of papers using transgenic monkeys come from China,” says Bezard, director of the Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Bordeaux, and manager of his own lab at the Institute of Laboratory Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
Among recent breakthroughs, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have genetically modified cynomolgus monkeys so they exhibit autistic-like behaviours, to better understand what causes the disorder, and how to treat it. CAS scientists have also cloned primates using a technique similar to the one that produced Dolly the sheep. Bezard has used rhesus monkeys to show how brain–computer interfaces can restore leg movement after spinal cord injury. These developments have coincided with improvements in the regulation and enforcement of international standards in the biosciences in China.
Two events were critical to the process: the 2003 SARS outbreak, which put a spotlight on the issue of wildlife and lab animal management, and the creation in China of the world’s first human–rabbit embryos in 2001, which provoked an international public relations crisis for the country.
The Chinese government recognizes that bioscience will play a major role in its global competitiveness. Biomedicine, synthetic biology and regenerative medical techniques are listed as strategic fields and industries in China’s 13th Five-Year Plan. “China doesn’t want to miss the life-science biotech revolution,” says Cao Cong, an innovation studies researcher at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China.
Trade.
Midway in the sixteenth century China became the great repository of the early modern world’s newly discovered wealth in silver. Long a participant in international maritime trade, China experienced the consequences of the greatly enlarged patterns in world trade. In that commerce China was essentially a seller of high-quality craft manufactures. Other countries could not compete either in quality or price. The colonies of the New World and the entire Mediterranean sphere of trade, from Portugal and Spain to the Ottoman Empire, began to complain that the influx of Chinese goods undermined their economies.
-F.W. Mote
China’s most significant trade relationships are with Asia and Europe, with the US third.
Almost no other country in the world has such a strong influence on the multilateral trading system as the United States. But with his “America First” policy, U.S. President Donald Trump is increasingly undermining international trade law. And that comes with huge costs not only for its trading partners but also for the United States itself.
As Parag Khanna says…
"Beijing must wonder why #3 would launch a trade war against #1. Though we are self-sufficient in many things,we may be more dispensable than we imagine. ‘America first’ sounds great except when it actually means ‘America alone’."
China has a multi-generational plan for on-going trade with the rest of the world. As discussed previously, the first step is the “Road and Belt Initative”, but other systems are slowly being put in place.
Meanwhile, the 2016 to 2019 “Trump Trade War” between the United States and China, has proven, beyond a doubt that the United States is NOT a stable trading partner, and other trading partnerships need to be developed.
China’s GINI, which never reached our nosebleed levels, is dropping like a stone and extreme poverty will be gone next year, when every Chinese will have a home, a job, plenty of food, education, safe streets, health and old age care.
The Gini index measures the area between the Lorenz curve and a hypothetical line of absolute equality, expressed as a percentage of the maximum area under the line. Thus a Gini index of 0 represents perfect equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality.
- China GINI index, 2017-2018 - knoema.com
When this happens there will then be more drug addicts, suicides and executions, more homeless, poor, hungry and imprisoned people in America than in China.
China’s GINI, which never reached our nosebleed levels, is dropping like a stone and extreme poverty will be gone next year, when every Chinese will have a home, a job, plenty of food, education, safe streets, health and old age care.
500,000,000 urban Chinese will have more net worth and disposable income than the average American, their mothers and infants will be less likely to die in childbirth, their children will graduate from high school three years ahead of–and outlive–our kids.
Chinese upper middle class house and lawn.
Ninety-eight percent of Chinese listed as ‘poor’ already own their homes (not “have mortgages”, they actually own the homes and the homes are paid off.) and Xi has scheduled 2021-2035 to bringing GINI below Finland’s.
Education.
No country has so many intelligent, well trained, devoted engineers.
One-fourth of the world’s STEM workers are Chinese, an intellectual workforce eight times larger, growing six times faster and graduating high school students three years ahead of ours.
One-fourth of the world’s STEM workers are Chinese, an intellectual workforce eight times larger, growing six times faster and graduating high school students three years ahead of ours.
By 2025, China will have more technologically skilled workers than the entire OECD–the US, EU, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Israel, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, and Turkey–combined.
The Chinese school system is merit based. You get zero points of diversity, economic hardship, or gender advantage. You succeed or fail. There are no easy outs.
The Chinese school system is merit based. You get zero points of diversity, economic hardship, or gender advantage. You succeed or fail. There are no easy outs.
Violence.
Low crime, no religious nonsense or Islamic violence. Companies can invest safely without fear of religious unrest, violence or robbery.
In China it is against the law to promote “progressive” change.
In China it is against the law to have any kind of social upheaval. It is also (functionally) against the law to have a lifestyle outside of the traditional conservative Chinese family. If you try to do so, for what ever reason, you risk being arrested and spending the rest of your life in a re-education camp, if not killed outright.
The Chinese do not mess around. Know your history.
Faith in the future.
Faith in the future, nationalism, a belief in building a better China: the Chinese have a strong belief in the future and willingly sacrifice time and effort for the next generation.
Faith in the future, nationalism, a belief in building a better China: the Chinese have a strong belief in the future and willingly sacrifice time and effort for the next generation.
The Chinese are feeling as we did in the 60s, except that their wages and wealth have doubled every decade for seventy years.
Their Market.
There are twice as many people in China than in the US and Europe combined and domestic consumption of China is growing 7% annually thanks to 200 million rural people moving into new cities.
China will have abundant low salary workers in its western provinces for the next 15 years.
Chinese companies are flexible beyond imagination. They can change products, management, focus or whatever literally overnight.
The Chinese are incredibly flexible and their culture has already outlived the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans. Western companies are hierarchically organized whereas in Chinese companies decisions are made fast, often on the phone.
Politics.
China is the world’s leading democracy. It’s called “Communist” as a hold-over from the Mr. Mao days, but that time is long, long past. China holds on to the idea that it is “communist” in the same way that Americans still call America a “Republic”. Both have evolved far, far away from their initial charter.
Here is why China is a democracy. You need to study the indicators that define governance of a nation…
In 2005, The Carter Center began transferring America’s democracy knowhow to China. Today, China’s democracy is bigger, faster, safer and cheaper than ours and runs entirely on Chinese intellectual property.
There’s a potentially huge market for an improved version. Might Chinese democracy displace America’s? Should we be surprised if the Chinese model becomes competitive?
For three thousand years no subject has preoccupied their elite more than governance. From their perspective, Deng’s 1977 comment about Western democracy, “It’s too soon to tell,” was simple common sense.
Barely forty years later, perhaps we can tell.
Only twenty percent of citizens in newly-democratic Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, Latvia, Poland and Bulgaria, trust their governments. Even fewer Britons trust Parliament and less than ten percent of us trust Congress.
Western democracy is losing legitimacy because governments’ agenda have remained at odds with their citizens’ agenda for decades but, as Margaret Thatcher would have said, there was no alternative.
- Selling Democracy to China
Now there is an alternative and, if we compare American democracy to China’s on seven axes we can at least begin the conversation.
“The State organs of the People’s Republic of China apply the principle of democratic centralism.
The National People’s Congress and the local people’s congresses at various levels are constituted through democratic elections.
They are responsible to the people and subject to their supervision. All administrative, judicial and procuratorial organs of the State are created by the people’s congresses to which they are responsible and by which they are supervised”.
America’s founders carefully omitted the word ‘democracy’ from all Constitutional documents. As it was initially founded as a Republic. But the 12th and the 17th amendments changed it into a democracy. Thus paving the way for Wilson, FDR, Clinton and Obama to turn America into a medieval-style serfdom functioning as an oligarchy.
At least the Chinese constitution clearly says that it is a democracy.
Electively, China’s bigger, more transparent elections were designed and supervised by The Carter Center which continues to expand the franchise at the behest of Premier Wen Jiabao, who told them in 2012,
“The experience of many villages shows farmers can succeed in directly electing village committees. If people can manage a village well they can manage a township and a county. We must encourage people to experiment boldly and test democracy in practice”.
Today, 3,200 democratically elected Congressional representatives must vote, almost unanimously, to approve all senior appointments and all legislation.
In the U.S., wealthy, unelected people propose and fund candidates for election. An unelected Electoral College chooses the chief executive.
Popularly, the Chinese, who still bear scars of recent governance mistakes, will tell you that it was when Mao, Deng and the Qing Emperor ignored experts that they got the country into trouble.
Today, Chinese democracy resembles Proctor and Gamble more than Pericles.
There are more than a thousand polling firms in China and its government spends prolifically on surveys, as author Jeff J. Brown says,
“My Beijing neighborhood committee and town hall are constantly putting up announcements, inviting groups of people–renters, homeowners, over seventies, women under forty, those with or without medical insurance, retirees–to answer surveys. The CPC is the world’s biggest pollster for a reason: China’s democratic ‘dictatorship of the people’ is highly engaged at the day-to-day, citizen-on-the-street level. I know, because I live in a middle class Chinese community and I question them all the time. I find their government much more responsive and democratic than the dog-and-pony shows back home, and I mean that seriously”.
Even the imperious Mao would remind colleagues,
“If we don’t investigate public opinion we have no right to voice our own opinion. Public opinion is our guideline for action,”
which is why Five Year Plans are the results of intensive polling. Citizens’ sixty-two percent voter participation suggests that they think their votes count. Princeton’s Gilens and Page, on the other hand, examining the causes of Americans’ fifty-two percent voter participation, found
‘the preferences of the average American appear to have a near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy’.
Procedurally, The Chinese engineers, economists, statisticians and sociologists who develop policies practice democracy among themselves and the top seven decision makers–appointed independently of each other and with a collective 200 years governing experience–require at least six votes to send legislation to Congress.
If President Xi claimed that global warming is a hoax he would be regarded as autocratic, not democratic.
If he wants a new climate policy and persuades five colleagues to support it, he can push it into the trials pipeline but, without solid trial data, he can’t propose legislation and the popularly elected, unpaid congress has proven willing to delay leaders’ pet projects for decades.
Data-driven democracy has steadily narrowed the gap between public expectations and government capacity, which is why Chinese support for government policies stands at 96 percent, higher than even Switzerland’s or Singapore’s and far higher than our twenty percent.
Operationally, American presidents resemble the medieval monarchs upon whom their office was modeled, as Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Henry Seward, observed,
“We elect a king for four years and give him absolute power within certain limits which, after all, he can interpret for himself”.
Our presidents hire and fire all senior officials, secretly ban fifty thousand citizens from flying, order people kidnapped, tortured, imprisoned and assassinated and take the country to war.
No Chinese leader, not even Mao at his peak, could do any of those things.
The president cannot even choose his prime minister (always his strongest rival for the presidency), can only make decisions with 6–1 or 7–0 support from colleagues and can’t hire or fire officials, elect, assign or suspend members of Congress.
President Obama’s healthcare initiative relied on his popularity and promises whereas, as Stanford VC Robin Daverman explains, China’s initiatives rely on math:
“China is a giant trial portfolio with millions of trials going on everywhere. Today, innovations in everything from healthcare to poverty reduction, education, energy, trade and transportation are being trialled in different communities. Every one of China’s 662 cities is experimenting: Shanghai with free trade zones, Guizhou with poverty reduction, twenty-three cities with education reforms, Northeastern provinces with SOE reform: pilot schools, pilot cities, pilot hospitals, pilot markets, pilot everything. Mayors and governors, the Primary Investigators, share their ‘lab results’ at the Central Party School and publish them in ‘scientific journals,’ the State-owned newspapers. Major policies undergo ‘clinical trials,’ beginning in small towns that generate and analyze test data. If the stats look good, they’ll add test sites and do long-term follow-ups. They test and tweak for 10-30 years then ask the 3,000-member People’s Congress to review the data and authorize national trials in three major provinces. If a national trial is successful the State Council [China’s Brains Trust] polishes the plan and takes it back to the 3,000 Congresspeople for a final vote. It’s very transparent and, if you have good data and I don’t, your bill gets passed and mine doesn’t. People’s Congress votes are nearly unanimous because the legislation is backed by reams of data. This allows China to accomplish a great deal in a short time: your winning solution will be quickly propagated throughout the country, you’ll be a front page hero and you’ll be invited to high-level meetings in Beijing and promoted. As you can imagine, the competition to find solutions is intense”.
China is doing this right. America is just running around in circles playing games (politics) and servicing the millions of leeches that live off the system. No wonder nothing can be completed in the USA.
Substantively, China has won her battle for survival and is now militarily and economically impregnable, so authoritarian giants like Mao and Deng are no longer needed.
Today, researchers, experts, media, academics, stakeholders and obstreperous citizens set the agenda.
Since 2000, China has allowed foreigners to conduct surveys and publish apolitical results without submitting their questionnaires and Harvard’s Tony Saich, who’s been polling there for over a decade reports, in Governing China, that ninety-six per cent of Chinese are satisfied with their national government and, according to Edelman’s 2016 Report, almost ninety percent of Chinese trust it.
Financially (we exclude financial democracy from polite conversation but the Chinese don’t), ninety-five percent of poor Chinese own their homes and land and the Chinese own, in common, the commanding heights of their economy– banks, insurers and utilities.
And Inequality is being effectively addressed.
In its 2017 study, Global Inequality Dynamics, America’s National Bureau of Economic Research reports that, though the bottom half of Chinese saw their share of national income fall from twenty-seven percent to fifteen percent after 1980, Americans’ share collapsed from twenty percent to twelve percent.
Simultaneously, China’s top one percent captured thirteen percent of all personal income, but America’s elite grabbed twenty percent.
“We can reasonably expect the virtual elimination of extreme poverty in [rural] China by 2022”.
Every Chinese–not just the poor–has doubled her income every ten years for the past 40 years, an extraordinary improvement in income mobility and the inverse of our experience.
“rates of absolute mobility have fallen from approximately 90% for children born in 1940 to 50% for children born in the 1980s. Absolute income mobility has fallen across the entire income distribution, with the largest declines for families in the middle class”.
Whether or not we’re willing to call China’s 20th century system democratic, it’s clear that they’ve improved on our quaint, eighteenth century model.
How long before they start selling the new, improved version of democracy? Yes, the Chiense version of democracy is light-years vastly improved over that clunky oligarchy model that exists in Washington, D.C..
Though this claim enrages many Westerners, regardless of the metric employed, electively, popularly, procedurally, operationally, substantively, financially, and technologically,
Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics—which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic-Elite Domination, and two types of interest-group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism—offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented.
A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. We report on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues.
- Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens
To understand China and how they view defense, you should understand their history. They have over 5000 years on nearly continuous warfare. They have evolved within this reality.
To understand China you must understand that they have evolved though over 5000 years of wars, and bloodshed.
Its more modern missiles out-range ours in every weight and class thanks to the tight coupling between their world leading chemists and rocket propellent manufacturers.
Russian weapons systems fill any gaps.
Morale.
A highly cohesive society, the Chinese, by a full 95% support their government’s policies and most are willing to fight for their country. They are fiercely patriotic. No matter what the Western media might say otherwise.
A highly cohesive society, the Chinese, by a full 95% support their government’s policies and most are willing to fight for their country. They are fiercely patriotic. No matter what the Western media might say otherwise.
The Future.
By 2025, nine provinces will enjoy higher average incomes than the US. By 2040, all will.
By 2025, nine provinces will enjoy higher average incomes than the US. By 2040, all will.
Conclusion
As large and great as America was, it is now in decline, and the Chinese nation is on the rise. Every indicator, on just about every level, confirms this. It is a fools errand to ignore this fact and to try to stymie this natural progression of the human species.
The smart and intelligent will recognize this and try to personally profit from this growth.
The sunset of the United States as a global empire.
Links about China
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
This is the full text of the story "R is for Rocket" by Ray Bradbury. It is not only a classic, but it is also a story that held particular meaning to me. For it was how I felt about my dreams to become that mystical "Spacemen". For us, back then, those of us who were "bitten by the bug" of space travel were fixated and driven by the one singular goal... to leave the Earth and explore "Outer Space".
I hope that you, the reader, will find this lovely story as wondrous as I have. Please enjoy it, and again, many thanks to the great master Ray Bradbury for composing this masterpiece.
R is for Rocket
There was this fence where we pressed our faces and felt the wind turn warm and held to the fence and forgot who we were or where we came from but dreamed of who we might be and where we might go. . . .
Yet we were boys and liked being boys and lived in a Florida town and liked the town and went to school and fairly liked the school and climbed trees and played football and liked our mothers and fathers. . . .
But some time every hour of every day of every week for a minute or a second when we thought on fire and stars and the fence beyond which they waited . . . we liked the rockets more.
The fence. The rockets.
Every Saturday morning . . .
The guys met at my house.
With the sun hardly up, they yelled until the neighbors were moved to brandish paralysis guns out their ventilators I commanding the guys to shut up or they’d be frozen statues for the next hour and then where would they be?
Aw, climb a rocket, stick your head in the main-jet! the kids always yelled back, but yelled this safe behind our garden I fence. Old Man Wickard, next door, is a great shot with the para-gun.
This one dim cool Saturday morning I was lying in bed thinking about how I had flunked my semantics exam the day before at formula-school, when I heard the gang yelling below. It was hardly 7 a.m. and there was still a lot of fog roaming in off the Atlantic, and only now were the weather-control vibrators at each corner starting to hum and shoot out rays to get rid of the stuff; I heard them moaning soft and nice.
I padded to the window and stuck my head out.
“Okay, space-pirates! Motors off!”
“Hey!” shouted Ralph Priory. “We just heard, there’s a new schedule today! The Moon Job, the one with the new XL3 motor, is cutting gravity in an hour!”
“Buddha, Muhammad, Allah, and other real and semi-mythological figures,” I said, and went away from the window so fast the concussion laid all the boys out on my lawn.
I zippered myself into a jumper, yanked on my boots, clipped my food-capsules to my hip-pocket, for I knew there’d be no food or even thought of food today, we’d just stuff with pills when our stomachs barked, and fell down the two-story vacuum elevator.
On the lawn, all five of the guys were chewing their lips, bouncing around, scowling.
“Last one,” said I, passing them at 5000 mph, “to the monorail is a bug-eyed Martian!”
On the monorail, with the cylinder hissing us along to Rocket Port, twenty miles from town — a few minutes ride — I had bugs in my stomach. A guy fifteen doesn’t get to see the big stuff often enough, mostly every week it was the small continental cargo rockets coming and going on schedule. But this was big, among the biggest . . . the Moon and beyond. . . .
“I’m sick,” said Priory, and hit me on the arm.
I hit him back. “Me, too. Boy, ain’t Saturday the best day in the week!?”
Priory and I traded wide, understanding grins. We got along all Condition Go. The other pirates were okay. Sid Rossen, Mac Leslyn, Earl Marnee, they knew how to jump around like all the kids, and they loved the rockets, too, but I had the feeling they wouldn’t be doing what Ralph and I would do some day. Ralph and I wanted the stars for each of us, more than we would want a fistful of clear-cut blue-white diamonds.
We yelled with the yellers, we laughed with the laughers, but at the middle of it all, we were still, Ralph and I, and the cylinder whispered to a stop and we were outside yelling, laughing, running, but quiet and almost in slow motion, Ralph ahead of me, and all of us pointed one way, at the observation fence and grabbing hold, yelling for the slowpokes to catch up, but not looking back for them, and then we were all there together and the big rocket came out of its plastic work canopy like a great interstellar circus tent and moved along its gleaming track out toward the fire point, accompanied by the gigantic gantry like a gathering of prehistoric reptile birds which kept and preened and fed this one big fire monster and led it toward its seizure and birth into a suddenly blast-furnace sky.
I quit breathing. I didn’t even suck another breath it seemed until the rocket was way out on the concrete meadow, followed by water-beetle tractors and great cylinders bearing hidden men, and all around, in asbestos suits, praying-mantis mechanics fiddled with machines and buzzed and cawwed and gibbered to each other on invisible, unhearable radiophones, but we could hear it all, in our heads, our minds, our hearts.
“Lord,” I said at last.
“The very good Lord,” said Ralph Priory at my elbow.
The others said this, too, over and over.
It was something to “good Lord” about. It was a hundred years of dreaming all sorted out and chosen and put together Ito make the hardest, prettiest, swiftest dream of all. Every line was fire solidified and made perfect, it was flame frozen, and lice waiting to thaw there in the middle of a concrete prairie, ready to wake with a roar, jump high and knock its silly fine great head against the Milky Way and knock the stars down in a full return of firefall meteors. You felt it could kick the Coal Sack Nebula square in the midriff and make it stand out of the way.
It got me in the midriff, too — it gripped me in such a way I knew the special sickness of longing and envy and grief for lack of accomplishment. And when the astronauts patrolled the field in the final silent mobile-van, my body went with them in their strange white armor, in their bubble-helmets and insouciant pride, looking as if they were team-parading to a magnetic football game at one of the local mag-fields, for mere practice. But they were going to the Moon, they went every month now, and the crowds that used to come to watch were no longer there, there was just us kids to worry them up and worry them off.
“Gosh,” I said. “What wouldn’t I give to go with them. What wouldn’t I give.”
“Me,” said Mac, “I’d give my one-year monorail privileges.”
“Yeah. Oh, very much yeah.”
It was a big feeling for us kids caught half between this morning’s toys and this afternoon’s very real and powerful fireworks.
And then the preliminaries got over with. The fuel was in the rocket and the men ran away from it on the ground like ants running lickety from a metal god — and the Dream woke up and gave a yell and jumped into the sky. And then it was gone, all the vacuum shouting of it, leaving nothing but a hot trembling in the air, through the ground, and up our legs to our hearts. Where it had been was a blazed, seared pock and a fog of rocket smoke like a cumulus cloud banked low.
“It’s gone!” yelled Priory.
And we all began to breathe fast again, frozen there on the ground as if stunned by the passing of a gigantic paralysis gun.
“I want to grow up quick,” I said, then. “I want to grow up quick so I can take that rocket.”
I bit my lips. I was so darned young, and you cannot apply for space work. You have to be chosen. Chosen.
Finally somebody, I guess it was Sidney, said:
“Let’s go to the tele-show now.”
Everyone said yeah, except Priory and myself. We said no, and the other kids went off laughing breathlessly, talking, and left Priory and me there to look at the spot where the ship had been.
It spoiled everything else for us — that takeoff.
Because of it, I flunked my semantics test on Monday.
I didn’t care.
At times like that I thanked Providence for concentrates. When your stomach is nothing but a coiled mass of excitement, you hardly feel like drawing a chair to a full hot dinner. A few concen-tabs swallowed, did wonderfully well as substitution, without the urge of appetite.
I got to thinking about it, tough and hard, all day long and late at night. It got so bad I had to use sleep-massage mechs every night, coupled with some of Tschaikovsky’s quieter music to get my eyes shut.
“Good Lord, young man,” said my teacher, that Monday at class. “If this keeps up I’ll have you reclassified at the next psych-board meeting.”
“I’m sorry,” I replied.
He looked hard at me. “What sort of block have you got? I It must be a very simple, and also a conscious, one.”
I winced. “It’s conscious, sir; but it’s not simple. It’s multi-tentacular. In brief, though — it’s rockets.”
He smiled. “R is for Rocket, eh?”
“I guess that’s it, sir.”
“We can’t let it interfere with your scholastic record, though, young man.”
“Do you think I need hypnotic suggestion, sir?”
“No, no.” He flipped through a small tab of records with my name blocked on it. I had a funny stone in my stomach, just lying there. He looked at me. “You know, Christopher, you’re king-of-the-hill here; head of the class.” He closed his eyes and mused over it. “We’ll have to see about a lot of other things,” he concluded. Then he patted me on the shoulder.
“Well — get on with your work. Nothing to worry about.”
He walked away.
I tried to get back to work, but I couldn’t. During the rest of the day the teacher kept watching me and looking at my tab-record and chewing his lip. About two in the afternoon he dialed a number on his desk-audio and discussed something with somebody for about five minutes.
I couldn’t hear what was said.
But when he set the audio into its cradle, he stared straight at me with the funniest light in his eyes.
It was envy and admiration and pity all in one. It was a little sad and it was much of happiness. It had a lot in it, just in his eyes. The rest of his face said nothing.
It made me feel like a saint and a devil sitting there.
Ralph Priory and I slid home from formula-school together early that afternoon. I told Ralph what had happened and he frowned in the dark way he always frowns.
I began to worry. And between the two of us we doubled and tripled the worry.
“You don’t think you’ll be sent away, do you, Chris?”
Our monorail car hissed. We stopped at our station. We got out. We walked slow. “I don’t know,” I said.
“That would be plain dirty,” said Ralph.
“Maybe I need a good psychiatric laundering, Ralph. I can’t go on flubbing my studies this way.”
We stopped outside my house and looked at the sky for a long moment. Ralph said something funny.
“The stars aren’t out in the daytime, but we can see ’em, can’t we, Chris?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Darn rights.”
“Well stick it together, huh, Chris? Blast them, they can’t take you away now. We’re pals. It wouldn’t be fair.”
I didn’t say anything because there was no room in my throat for anything but a hectagonal lump.
“What’s the matter with your eyes?” asked Priory.
“Aw, I looked at the sun too long. Come on inside, Ralph.”
We yelled under the shower spray in the bath-cubicle, but our yells weren’t especially convincing, even when we turned on the ice-water.
While we were standing in the warm-air dryer, I did a lot of thinking. Literature, I figured, was full of people who fought battles against hard, razor-edged opponents. They pitted brain and muscle against obstacles until they won out or were themselves defeated. But here I was with hardly a sign of any outward conflict. It was all running around in spiked boots inside my head, making cuts and bruises where no one could see them except me and a psychologist. But it was just as bad.
“Ralph,” I said, as we dressed, “I got a war on.”
“All by yourself?” he asked.
“I can’t include you,” I said. “Because this is personal. How many times has my mother said, ‘Don’t eat so much, Chris, your eyes are bigger than your stomach?'”
“A million times.”
“Two million. Well, paraphrase it, Ralph. Change it to ‘Don’t see so much, Chris, your mind is too big for your body.’ I got a war on between a mind that wants things my body can’t give it.”
Priory nodded quietly. “I see what you mean about its being a personal war. In that case, Christopher, I’m at war, too.”
“I knew you were,” I said. “Somehow I think the other kids’ll grow out of it. But I don’t think we will, Ralph. I think we’ll keep waiting.”
We sat down in the middle of the sunlit upper deck of the house, and started checking over some homework on our formula-pads. Priory couldn’t get his. Neither could I. Priory put into words the very thing I didn’t dare say out loud.
“Chris, the Astronaut Board selects. You can’t apply for it. You wait.”
“I know.”
“You wait from the time you’re old enough to turn cold in the stomach when you see a Moon rocket, until all the years go by, and every month that passes you hope that one morning a blue Astronaut helicopter will come down out of the sky, land on your lawn, and that a neat-looking engineer will ease out, walk up the rampway briskly, and touch the bell.
“You keep waiting for that helicopter until you’re twenty-one. And then, on the last day of your twentieth year you drink and laugh a lot and say what the heck, you didn’t really care about it, anyway.”
We both just sat there, deep in the middle of his words. We both just sat there. Then:
“I don’t want that disappointment, Chris. I’m fifteen, just like you. But if I reach my twenty-first year without an Astronaut ringing the bell where I live at the ortho-station, I — “
“I know,” I said. “I know. I’ve talked to men who’ve waited, all for nothing. And if it happens that way to us, Ralph, well — we’ll get good and drunk together and then go out and take jobs loading cargo on a Europe-bound freighter.”
Ralph stiffened and his face went pale. “Loading cargo.”
There was a soft, quick step on the ramp and my mother was there. I smiled. “Hi, lady!”
“Hello. Hello, Ralph.”
“Hello, Jhene.”
She didn’t look much older than twenty-five, in spite of having birthed and raised me and worked at the Government Statistics House. She was light and graceful and smiled a lot, and I could see how father must have loved her very much when he was alive. One parent is better than none. Poor Priory, now, raised in one of those orthopedical stations. . . .
Jhene walked over and put her hand on Ralph’s face. “You look ill,” she said. “What’s wrong?”
Ralph managed a fairly good smile. “Nothing — at all.”
Jhene didn’t need prompting. She said, “You can stay here I tonight, Priory. We want you. Don’t we, Chris?”
“Heck, yes.”
“I should get back to the station,” said Ralph, rather feebly, I observed. “But since you asked and Chris here needs help on his semantics for tomorrow, I’ll stick and help him.”
“Very generous,” I observed.
“First, though, I’ve a few errands. I’ll take the ‘rail and be back in an hour, people.”
When Ralph was gone my mother looked at me intently, then brushed my hair back with a nice little move of her fingers.
“Something’s happening, Chris.”
My heart stopped talking because it didn’t want to talk any more for a while. It waited.
I opened my mouth, but Jhene went on:
“Something’s up somewhere. I had two calls at work today. One from your teacher. One from — I can’t say. I don’t want to say until things happen — “
My heart started talking again, slow and warm.
“Don’t tell me, then, Jhene. Those calls — “
She just looked at me. She took my hand between her two soft warm ones. “You’re so young, Chris. You’re so awfully young.”
I didn’t speak.
Her eyes brightened. “You never knew your father. I wish you had. You know what he was, Chris?”
I said, “Yeah. He worked in a Chemistry Lab, deep underground most of the time.”
And, my mother added, strangely, “He worked deep under the ground, Chris, and never saw the stars.”
My heart yelled in my chest. Yelled loud and hard.
“Oh, Mother. Mother — “
It was the first time in years I had called her mother.
When I woke the next morning there was a lot of sunlight in the room, but the cushion where Priory slept when he stayed over, was vacant. I listened. I didn’t hear him splashing in the shower-cube, and the dryer wasn’t humming. He was gone.
I found his note pinned on the sliding door.
“See you at formula at noon. Your mother wanted me to do some work for her. She got a call this morning, and said she needed me to help. So long. Priory.”
Priory out running errands for Jhene. Strange. A call in the early morning to Jhene. I went back and sat down on the cushion.
While I was sitting there a bunch of the kids yelled down on the lawn-court. “Hey, Chris! You’re late!”
I stuck my head out the window. “Be right down!”
“No, Chris.”
My mother’s voice. It was quiet and it had something funny in it. I turned around. She was standing in the doorway behind me, her face pale, drawn, full of some small pain. “No, Chris,” she said again, softly. “Tell them to go on to formula without you — today.”
The kids were still making noise downstairs, I guess, but I didn’t hear them. I just felt myself and my mother, slim and pale and restrained in my room. Far off, the weather-control vibrators started to hum and throb.
I turned slowly and looked down at the kids. The three of them were looking up, lips parted casually, half-smiling, semantic-tabs in their knotty fingers. “Hey — ” one of them said. Sidney, it was.
“Sorry, Sid. Sorry, gang. Go on without me. I can’t go to formula today. See you later, huh?”
“Aw, Chris!”
“Sick?”
“No. Just — Just go on without me, gang. I’ll see you.”
I felt numb. I turned away from their upturned, questioning faces and glanced at the door. Mother wasn’t there. She had gone downstairs, quietly. I heard the kids moving off, not quite as boisterously, toward the monorail station.
Instead of using the vac-elevator, I walked slowly downstairs. “Jhene,” I said, “where’s Ralph?”
Jhene pretended to be interested in combing her long light hair with a vibro-toothed comb. “I sent him off. I didn’t want him here this morning.”
“Why am I staying home from formula, Jhene?”
“Chris, please don’t ask.”
Before I could say anything else, there was a sound in the air. It cut through the very soundproofed wall of the house, and hummed in my marrow, quick and high as an arrow of glittering music.
I swallowed. All the fear and uncertainty and doubt went away, instantly.
When I heard that note, I thought of Ralph Priory. Oh Ralph, if you could be here now. I couldn’t believe the truth of it. Hearing that note and hearing it with my whole body and soul as well as with my ears.
It came closer, that sound. I was afraid it would go away. But it didn’t go away. It lowered its pitch and came down outside the house in great whirling petals of light and shadow and I knew it was a helicopter the color of the sky. It stopped humming, and in the silence my mother tensed forward, dropped the vibro-comb and took in her breath.
In that silence, too, I heard booted footsteps walking up the ramp below. Footsteps that I had waited for a long time.
Footsteps I was afraid would never come.
Somebody touched the bell.
And I knew who it was.
And all I could think was, Ralph, why in heck did you have to go away now, when all this is happening? Blast it, Ralph, why did you?
The man looked as if he had been born in his uniform. It fitted like a second layer of salt-colored skin, touched here and there with a line, a dot of blue. As simple and perfect a uniform as could be made, but with all the muscled power of the universe behind it.
His name was Trent. He spoke firmly, with a natural round perfection, directly to the subject.
I stood there, and my mother was on the far side of the room, looking like a bewildered little girl. I stood listening.
Out of all the talking I remember some of the snatches:
“. . . highest grades, high IQ. Perception A-1, curiosity Triple-A. Enthusiasm necessary to the long, eight-year educational grind. . . .”
“Yes, sir.”
“. . . talks with your semantics and psychology teachers — “
“Yes, sir.”
“. . . and don’t forget, Mr. Christopher . . .”
Mister Christopher!
“. . . and don’t forget, Mr. Christopher, nobody is to know you have been selected by the Astronaut Board.”
“No one?”
“Your mother and teacher know, naturally. But no other person must know. Is that perfectly understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
Trent smiled quietly, standing there with his big hands at his sides. “You want to ask why, don’t you? Why you can’t tell your friends? I’ll explain.
“It’s a form of psychological protection. We select about ten thousand young men each year from the earth’s billions. Out of that number three thousand wind up, eight years later, as spacemen of one sort or another. The others must return to society. They’ve flunked out, but there’s no reason for everyone to know. They usually flunk out, if they’re going to flunk, in the first six months. And it’s tough to go back and face your friends and say you couldn’t make the grade at the biggest job in the world. So we make it easy to go back.
“But there’s still another reason. It’s psychological, too. Half the fun of being a kid is being able to lord it over the other guys, by being superior in some way. We take half the fun out of Astronaut selection by strictly forbidding you to tell your pals. Then, we’ll know if you wanted to go into space for frivolous reasons, or for space itself. If you’re in it for personal conceit — you’re damned.
If you’re in it because you can’t help being in it and have to be in it — you’re blessed.”
He nodded to my mother. “Thank you, Mrs. Christopher.”
“Sir,” I said. “A question. I have a friend. Ralph Priory. He lives at an ortho-station — “
Trent nodded. “I can’t tell you his rating, of course, but he’s on our list. He’s your buddy? You want him along, of course. I’ll check his record. Station-bred, you say? That’s not good. But — we’ll see.”
“If you would, please, thanks.”
“Report to me at the Rocket Station Saturday afternoon at five, Mr. Christopher. Meantime: silence.”
He saluted. He walked off. He went away in the helicopter into the sky, and Mother was beside me quickly, saying, “Oh, Chris, Chris,” over and over, and we held to each other and whispered and talked and she said many things, how good this was going to be for us, but especially for me, how fine, what an honor it was, like the old old days when men fasted and took vows and joined churches and stopped up their tongues and were silent and prayed to be worthy and to live well as monks and priests of many churches in far places, and came forth and moved in the world and lived as examples and taught well. It was no different now, this was a greater priesthood, in a way, she said, she inferred, she knew, and I was to be some small part of it, I would not be hers any more, I would belong to all the worlds, I would be all the things my father wanted to be and never lived or had a chance to be. . . .
“Darn rights, darn rights,” I murmured. “I will, I promise I will . . .”
I caught my voice. “Jhene — how — how will we tell Ralph? What about him?”
“You’re going away, that’s all, Chris. Tell him that. Very simply. Tell him no more. He’ll understand.”
“But, Jhene, you —”
She smiled softly. “Yes, I’ll be lonely, Chris. But I’ll have my work and I’ll have Ralph.”
“You mean . . .”
“I’m taking him from the ortho-station. He’ll live here, when you’re gone. That’s what you wanted me to say, isn’t it, Chris?”
I nodded, all paralyzed and strange inside.
“That’s exactly what I wanted you to say.”
“He’ll be a good son, Chris. Almost as good as you.”
“He’ll be fine!”
We told Ralph Priory. How I was going away maybe to school in Europe for a year and how Mother wanted him to come live as her son, now, until such time as I came back. We said it quick and fast, as if it burned our tongues. And when we finished, Ralph came and shook my hand and kissed my mother on the cheek and he said:
“I’ll be proud. I’ll be very proud.”
It was funny, but Ralph didn’t even ask any more about why I was going, or where, or how long I would be away. All he would say was, “We had a lot of fun, didn’t we?” and let it go at that, as if he didn’t dare say any more.
It was Friday night, after a concert at the amphitheater in the center of our public circle, and Priory and Jhene and I came home, laughing, ready to go to bed.
I hadn’t packed anything. Priory noted this briefly, and let it go. All of my personal supplies for the next eight years would be supplied by someone else. No need for packing.
My semantics teacher called on the audio, smiling and saying a very brief, pleasant good-bye.
Then, we went to bed, and I kept thinking in the hour before I lolled off, about how this was the last night with Jhene and Ralph. The very last night.
Only a kid of fifteen — me.
And then, in the darkness, just before I went to sleep, Priory twisted softly on his cushion, turned his solemn face to me, and whispered, “Chris?” A pause. “Chris. You still awake?” It was like a faint echo.
“Yes,” I said.
“Thinking?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
He said, “You’re — You’re not waiting any more, are you, Chris?”
I knew what he meant. I couldn’t answer.
I said, “I’m awfully tired, Ralph.”
He twisted back and settled down and said, “That’s what I thought. You’re not waiting any more. Gosh, but that’s good, Chris. That’s good.”
He reached out and punched me in the arm-muscle, lightly.
Then we both went to sleep.
It was Saturday morning. The kids were yelling outside. Their voices filled the seven o’clock fog. I heard Old Man Wickard’s ventilator flip open and the zip of his para-gun, playfully touching around the kids.
“Shut up!” I heard him cry, but he didn’t sound grouchy. It was a regular Saturday game with him. And I heard the kids giggle.
Priory woke up and said, “Shall I tell them, Chris, you’re not going with them today?”
“Tell them nothing of the sort.” Jhene moved from the door. She bent out the window, her hair all light against a ribbon of fog. “Hi, gang! Ralph and Chris will be right down. Hold gravity!”
“Jhene!” I cried.
She came over to both of us. “You’re going to spend your Saturday the way you always spend it — with the gang!”
“I planned on sticking with you, Jhene.”
“What sort of holiday would that be, now?”
She ran us through our breakfast, kissed us on the cheeks, and forced us out the door into the gang’s arms.
“Let’s not go out to the Rocket Port today, guys.”
“Aw, Chris — why not?”
Their faces did a lot of changes. This was the first time in history I hadn’t wanted to go. “You’re kidding, Chris.”
“Sure he is.”
“No, he’s not. He means it,” said Priory. “And I don’t want to go either. We go every Saturday. It gets tiresome. We can go next week instead.”
“Aw . . .”
They didn’t like it, but they didn’t go off by themselves. It was no fun, they said, without us.
“What the heck— we’ll go next week.”
“Sure we will. What do you want to do, Chris?”
I told them.
We spent the morning playing Kick the Can and some games we’d given up a long time ago, and we hiked out along some old rusty and abandoned railroad tracks and walked in a small woods outside town and photographed some birds and went swimming raw, and all the time I kept thinking — this is the last day.
We did everything we had ever done before on Saturday. All the silly crazy things, and nobody knew I was going away except Ralph, and five o’clock kept getting nearer and nearer.
At four, I said good-bye to the kids.
“Leaving so soon, Chris? What about tonight?”
“Call for me at eight,” I said. “We’ll go see the new Sally Gibberts picturel”
“Swell.”
“Cut gravity!”
And Ralph and I went home.
Mother wasn’t there, but she had left part of herself, her smile and her voice and her words on a spool of audio-film on my bed. I inserted it in the viewer and threw the picture on the wall. Soft yellow hair, her white face and her quiet words:
“I hate good-byes, Chris. I’ve gone to the laboratory to do some extra work. Good luck. All of my love. When I see you again — you’ll be a man.”
That was all.
Priory waited outside while I saw it over four times. “I hate good-byes, Chris. I’ve gone . . . work. . . . luck. All . . . my love. . . .”
I had made a film-spool myself the night before. I spotted it in the viewer and left it there. It only said good-bye.
Priory walked halfway with me. I wouldn’t let him get on the Rocket Port monorail with me. I
just shook his hand, tight, and said, “It was fun today, Ralph.”
“Yeah. Well, see you next Saturday, huh, Chris?”
“I wish I could say yes.”
“Say yes anyway. Next Saturday — the woods, the gang, the rockets, and Old Man Wickard and his trusty para-gun.”
We laughed. “Sure. Next Saturday, early. Take — Take care of our mother, will you, Priory?”
“That’s a silly question, you nut,” he said.
“It is, isn’t it?”
He swallowed. “Chris.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ll be waiting. Just like you waited and don’t have to wait any more. I’ll wait.”
“Maybe it won’t be long, Priory. I hope not.”
I jabbed him, once, in the arm. He jabbed back.
The monorail door sealed. The car hurled itself away, and Priory was left behind.
I stepped out at the Port. It was a five-hundred-yard walk down to the Administration building. It took me ten years to walk it.
“Next time I see you you’ll be a man — “
“Don’t tell anybody — “
“I’ll wait, Chris — “
It was all choked in my heart and it wouldn’t go away and it swam around in my eyes.
I thought about my dreams. The Moon Rocket. It won’t be part of me, part of my dream any longer. I’ll be part of it.
I felt small there, walking, walking, walking.
The afternoon rocket to London was just taking off as I went down the ramp to the office. It shivered the ground and it shivered and thrilled my heart.
I was beginning to grow up awfully fast.
I stood watching the rocket until someone snapped their heels, cracked me a quick salute.
I was numb.
“C. M. Christopher?”
“Yes, sir. Reporting, sir.”
“This way, Christopher. Through that gate.”
Through that gate and beyond the fence . . .
This fence where we had pressed our faces and felt the wind turn warm and held to the fence and forgot who we were or where we came from but dreamed of who we might be and where we might go . . .
This fence where had stood the boys who liked being boys who lived in a town and liked the town
and fairly liked school and liked football and liked their fathers and mothers . . .
The boys who some time every hour of every day of every week thought on fire and stars and the fence beyond which they waited. . . . The boys who liked the rockets more.
Mother, Ralph, I’ll see you. I’ll be back.
Mother!
Ralph!
And, walking, I went beyond the fence.
The End
What an absolutely wonderful story.
It means a lot to me.
And people, that's exactly how it was like for me to leave university as an Aerospace Engineer and enter NAS, NASC Pensacola Florida as an AOCS Aviation Office Candidate.
I well remember arrival at the airport and proceeding to the lobby where there was this enormously huge arrow pointing to this ridiculously tiny phone set in the wall. Telling me to pick up the phone and call the base.
Fictional Story Related Index
This is an index of full text reprints of stories that I have
read that influenced me when I was young. They are rather difficult to
come by today, as where I live they are nearly impossible to find. Yes,
you can find them on the internet, behind paywalls. Ah, that’s why all
those software engineers in California make all that money. Well, here
they are FOR FREE. Enjoy reading them.
Movies that Inspired Me
Here are some movies that I consider noteworthy and worth a view. Enjoy.
Stories that Inspired Me
Here are
reprints in full text of stories that inspired me, but that are nearly
impossible to find in China. I place them here as sort of a personal
library that I can use for inspiration. The reader is welcome to come
and enjoy a read or two as well.
My Poetry
Art that Moves Me
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America has evolved. China has changed. But the mainstream media reporting has not. This post discusses how both China and the United States have changed. We look at how they have migrated away from the form of government they were first established as. We look at how they both started, how they both changed, and where they both are today.
For the United States, we study how it was first set up as a Constitutional Republic. We look at how it was changed through “progressive” alterations by President Wilson. We track the train of progressive change through FDR, to Clinton, and Obama. Finally, we follow the changes to the totalitarian police-state oligarchy America is today.
For China, we study how it was set up as a Marxist utopia, and how it failed miserably. We look at who orchastrated the movement away from hard-line communism, and what they replaced it with. For, surprisingly, it was replaced by a single-party traditional Chinese-conservative government. We discuss how Mr. Deng brought this transformation through the implementation of Reganomics in the 1980’s.
Of course, we use facts and history to support this history. But, it’s not a popular history. It’s a stealth history.
The Stereotypes of China and America
The actual history lies hidden. We never see it behind the paid actors and actresses that pretend to be reporters. We never watch the actors pretending to be “experts” on televised discussion boards. We never see the entire picture, ever. All we see are actors reading scripted lines. Lines that are cultivated to evoke emotional reactions from us.
All we see is what is being “reported” to us.
American news 18AUG19. This is a screen capture of CNN taken on 18August 2019. Our view of life and news is all colored by the news selectively presented to us, and how it is presented.
That’s because the mainstream American media is a propaganda arm for others who desire Americans live in a “fake reality”. It’s a reality where Americans can be easily manipulated, emotionally tugged upon, and cajoled to perform the bidding of others.
Have you ever wondered why some people think the way that they do? I mean, why is it “common knowledge” that Trump followers are “Deplorable” Nazi “Red-Necks” who are High School dropouts and uneducated bumbletons? Why is it “common knowledge” that Universities and Colleges are the perfect routes for success in today’s’ modern world? Why is it “common knowledge” that we need to pay income taxes or else our bridges would collapse and our telephones would explode?
The News Media told us.
The following link opens up in a separate tab…
I argue that in order to have a peaceful life, you need to tune out and turn off that screaming, screeching noise-maker. You need to divorce yourself from the news. Oh, and yes this means all news. Most especially the news that YOU WANT TO BELIEVE. For that is the most dangerous manipulations. For they have successfully tapped into your emotional tug-points.
Because of all this manipulation, Americans have a distorted view of the world, and their place in it.
American media is just propaganda. Nothing that you see is real and truthful. It is all distorted lies and partial-truths.
That is why many young people today feel that America is a horrible place, and needs to be replaced with a soft and kind socialist utopia. While, older Americans hold on to the belief that America is still the greatest nation in the world, and that it is full of “free” people living a life in liberty. Both points of view are framed upon the lies fed to them by the media.
With this there are two “camps” of belief;
Conservative. America is still a free republic. Liberty, while under assault, still exists. Any problems that America has are short-lived, and as long as a Conservative representative is elected, everything will be fixed, and people will once again be left alone as the normal order of things.
Progressive. America has problems because it is not progressive enough. It needs a strong leader to move to the “enlightened despotic” utopia. A utopia where the intellectually superior would tend to the rest of humanity much like a Shepard tends a flock of sheep. A Shepard sort of like a militarized Obama.
Let’s look at these two nations (USA and China) and two societies and compare them, shall we? Let’s start with America.
America Today
Liberty does not thrive when you must pee in a cup to get a job.
Here we are going to start with America. For simplicity, I have broken apart the various details into other posts. (All the statements made can be expanded upon in much greater detail by clicking on the links shown.)
Ron Swanson. I am an American. Know what this is all about.
How America was Changed.
How America was changed. It was changed purposefully. The America that we see today is what is the result of 100 years of progressive alteration in the hopes of achieving a utopia. Which is, on top of an earlier period of 100 years of evolution where those in government centralized power and control.
Wilson started the path towards progressive implementation. He turned Americans into serfs, and put bankers in charge of America’s economy.
FDR expanded upon it and had to rewrite and redefine the interpretation of key aspects of the Constitution. He pretty much started down the path to shredding the Bill of Rights.
Clinton altered the Justice department. Implemented forceful elements of social change and started the balkanization of America.
Obama radicalized all of the many agencies in Government. He armed them and made them a force to control the American people. He was the one who implemented the decisiveness and radical element of the progressive cause.
Freedom is never having to ask permission to eat, drink or do something with your own body.
This migration, the players who implemented this migration, as well as certain key changes to the American Constitution is covered in this link (it opens up in a separate tab);
Here is a little graph that I made about these changes, and no it is not precise. It is reflective of my own biases and not to scale. The horizontal axis represents time, the vertical axis represents the social-political organization of America.
Though, not completely accurate does not mean that it is nonsense. It does include the destruction of the tenth amendment during the civil war, and the progressive changes wrought on Americans by Wilson, FDR, Clinton and Obama.
Tracking the Changes that altered America.
Tracking how small changes made America what it is today. America has been under the assault of progressives, busy-bodies, fraudsters, and the evil for over two centuries. It's difficult to document and get the "big picture" without getting bogged down in the details.
Here we use a parable to show how well-meaning changes can severely alter what something is. It’s a fun parable. It is also directly applicable to America today. It also opens up in a separate link. And yes, that’s exactly what happened to America…
Ah… talking about the big picture…
The Big Picture
The Big Picture. Information overload. When dealing with a complex issue like two centuries of change in a large nation, such as America it becomes easy to get bogged down in the details and forget the big picture. Let's take a quick look at human nature, won't we?
But, again, now that you (the reader) can see the big picture, let’s get into some of the “nitty gritty”. First off, let’s look at the very first “showdown”. This was the American Civil War.
You see, back then the Federalists wanted a central government (like we have today), and those who read the constitution realized that the nation was founded on small government, locally governed. They used the issues of the day (which progressives want to politically realign to slavery) in order to battle with the big government folk. They fought and lost.
Today the elements of such a “showdown” are popping up here and there, and there are very close parallels to the American civil war. Let’s look at this…
The First Rupture
The first rupture. While the Constitution migrated away from a Republic in the first twenty years after ratification, the first signs that America did not represent it's people on a local level was evidenced by the first American Civil War. Here we look at this, and study how the exact same process is used contemporaneously to control American citizens.
Now, what is the nature of the people who want to discard liberty and freedom? What makes them tick, and why are they so “Hell bent” on changing things…
Who Changed America
Who changed it. We ask what the nature of people who want to implement change is, and look at specific examples. In this post we look at the personality aberrations that cause this kind of behaviors and why they despise the concept of liberty and freedom. Again, the link will open up in a separate tab for your reading clarity.
One of the problems that Americans have with this entire bout of change is that they are unable to categorize the absolute mind-blowing array of changes. And since they are unable to follow the entire wide breadth and scope of all the efforts that the progressives are doing, they fail to grasp the enormity of all the intent.
Yet, it need not be so complex.
America changed from a Republic to a Democracy early on.
Once a Democracy, evil and wealthy men used mob rule to get into positions of power.
They centralized the power in Washington D.C..
When the people revolted there was a Civil War and the powerful and wealthy won.
But, that power was not enough.
They wanted more. They wanted to live like Kings over serfs.
Thus progressive politics was implemented.
Subsequent Presidents expanded upon this and it changed society.
America changed from a K-strategy majority rule to a r-strategy control center.
Here we talk about this.
How the changes affect society
Americans have become so accustomed to the progressive onslaught that they do not realize what the assaults on liberty are.
How the changes affect society. Here we look at how the changes in the government structure results in how people behave. This tracking and association of behavior with environment is well known and quite remarkable in it's consistency. What people are loathe to associate is how exactly it is following the American model.
To put it clearer…
The state doesn't get to put up a hoop - not any hoop - for anyone to jump through before deciding their constitutional rights will be granted.
- Aesop at Raconteur Report
The Assault on Liberty. America has been dying a long slow death through million of tiny little cuts. Here we try to document just some of the many ways that America is being attacked. For each time you ban something, the government takes away a freedom. Freedom is the opposite of a ban. Here we look at this...
The cultivation of ignorance. In order to subjugate a people, you need to keep them ignorant, disarmed, drugged or otherwise helpless. There are many techniques, and many are being used on Americans today. Here we look at this aspect…
A looted America. Over the last 100 years, with the implementation of a progressive reality, America went from a nation of strong independence, to a dependent society that must ask permission from the government to function.
Since them, Americans have been treated as money-making machines, and fleeced over and over again.
Everything in the United States is monetized, taxed, regulated and utilized. The people are serfs serving the global ultra-wealthy. Here we study the American HST program as a perfect example of this…
Culture Wars. There is a fundamental clash between the very two disparate cultures in America.
One is the “nationalism” movement. They want [1] to be left alone, [2] a much smaller government, and [3] a return to the Constitution as written back in 1776.
The other is the “modern progressive” movement. It has elements that are desirous of [1] “enlightened despotism” and is [2] implementing Marxism to achieve their preferred utopia. It is a King and slave relationship.
Here we discuss this… “the culture wars”…
Hyper regulation of everything. In America you have expensive medical care, that if you track it back to it’s source, you will find that all the costs (in one way or the other) originated in various ways by government programs.
For instance, you have expensive cars that in one way or the other requires testing, and registration of all of the millions of components that make up the vehicle.
You have to ask an agency for permission to do anything. It wasn’t always this way.
It is this way because FDR scrapped out the SCOTUS who ruled that the 9th amendment will not permit the formation of any federal agencies. He did not like this. So he overhauled the SCOTUS and staffed it with closet Marxist wanna-bes. They then started ruling in favor of rolling waves of Marxism.
How Americans are controlled. Americans are the most manipulated, regulated, taxed and regulated people on the planet. Of course, many don’t think so.
They look at the shiny newness of their shackles and view that as a sign of freedom. Here we look at how Americans are manipulated and kept in a state of fear.
Under a progressive liberal agenda, Americans have come to accept the cleanness and newness of their shackles as a sign of advancement and modern enlightenment. It is what was intended by President Wilson when he rewrote the Constitution to implement enlightened despotism as a prelude to full-on Marxist control by the richest people in society. You can see how this works with the two tiered justice system, and the rampant abuse of young girls by the richest elite.
Some long over due changes. Here we discuss some of the key things that MUST be changed to have America move back to the Constitution as it was intended to be.
These are not a comprehensive list of items, it’s just some of the many, many problems that MUST be radically changed or else the United States will be no longer in the near future…
Personally, I would erase EVERYTHING, and start all over again, but with the Constitution as originally written. I would undo all the alterations, scrap the current crop of players, and start fresh and new.
I would put everything in the hands of the individual states. I would pull the federal government out of everything except the most limited and necessary functions.
I would defang every government entity, and then implement a fourth branch – the OVERSIGHT branch of corruption police constantly keeping the officials transparent and honest. This group would be very powerful and have it’s own court system, police, prisons, and torture rooms.
And yes, I would follow the Chinese model and implement torture for abuse by leadership. They will not be given a free pass. After all, if they want their own laws, they will have to have their own punishments as well.
I would nuke the progressive government from orbit, and set up corruption police to make sure that these monsters never raise their ugly heads ever again. I would do exactly the same thing that the Chinese do to their SJW problem.
But that is just me.
Today America is so far removed from what it once was that Americans have NO IDEA what freedom actually is. Hey! Wake up! These are CRITICAL characteristics of a FREE SOCIETY, how many exist in America today? Eh?
No taxes on anything.
No regulations except the most critical infrastructure.
No agencies.
Property means “YOURS.”
Privacy is absolute.
One set of laws that are applied equally.
In a free land, you can smoke and kill yourself with drugs and drink. No one will stop you.
In a free land, your property is yours, and no one can seize it, tax it, regulate it or claim it from you.
In a free land there are no laws against “vices” and no laws on behavior.
Starting all over from scratch is the only way to be sure.
How different America is today from the founding? It is terribly different from what the Constitution was originally set up as.
In fact, aside from keeping the same names and titles, the nation resembles the exact opposite as what it was set up as. Here, we go Right by Right (in the Bill of Rights) and look at the tattered remains of what exists.
What America is today. Finally, we conclude with a study of what America actually is. We look at the organization, the history, the changes and the functional rearrangements that made America what it is. Then we come to conclusions as to what it functionally is.
Spoiler alert: It’s an oligarchy run by non-Americans.
Which pretty much explains this comment…
According to the experts, America is a country whose most fearsome enemy is not only the majority of its people—the majority of its people are also the nation’s biggest threat and its ultimate outsiders.
-Jim Goad at Taki's Magazine
China
Lets look at China.
It’s common knowledge that China is communist. We know this, because
the progressive American mainstream media has told us this. We know this
because this was the case as recent as the 1980’s. We know this because
Mr. Mao proudly committed to communist ideals back in the 1940’s. We
know this because his picture is still on the Chinese currency.
And… and, we believe this is still the case, well because, we don’t know any better.
The failure of communism
However, that has all changed. You know, there have been many, many
changes since Richard Nixon was in office. A lot has happened since the
1960’s. First, communist China collapsed in the 1970’s. (Though, it
didn’t get the American media attention that it deserved. It’s almost
like the American media were pining away for the success of communism.) Communist Cambodia collapsed shortly afterwards, followed by the collapse of the communist Soviet Union.
In the tail half of the last century, just about every communist
nation imploded in upon itself. With the exception of Cuba and North
Korea.
Of course, the American mainstream media wouldn’t like to admit any
of this. In their minds, it is still useful (for distraction purposes)
to manipulate the more mainstream and conservative members of their
(shrinking) audience. They do this by treating Americans as fools and
playing Don Quixote chasing “communist” windmills.
It serves their “Neocon” audiences.
What they have left out, in their news casts and discussion panels,
was that communism in China was a terrible failure. When communism was
implemented in China, it caused devastation, deaths, starvation, and the
destruction of centuries of culture and society. Not just a few deaths,
mind you. But whole-scale mass starvation. Not just the destruction of
one or two museums, but most of the history of China. Not just the
unwritten traditions, but really all aspects of Chinese life was
adversely corrupted.
We
well know about how the Soviet Union and that brand of communism fell.
What was little reported was how the Chinese were able to avert a
similar catastrophe. In China, they had heroes who experimented with
non-Communist methods to bring about economic success. Mr. Deng and his
Chinese version of Reaganomics was the most successful.
China, due to Mr. Mao and his advisors, was riding the bullet train towards catastrophic collapse.
In the 1970’s serious and drastic action needed to be taken to undo
the ravages of communism. So numerous leaders “stepped up to the plate”.
Each one acted as a hero in an attempt to stop the collapse of the
Chinese government, and the resulting foreign intervention.
(You all know, don’t you, that once the Chinese nation collapsed,
that rich and wealthy American elite would offer to “rebuild” the
nation. You know, out of kindness…)
Implementation of Reaganomics in China in the 1980’s
So the Chinese all stepped up. One of the most famous was Mr. Deng.
He and his stunning successes are known all over China. He implemented
wide-scale Ronald Reagan economic policies. Only this time, he didn’t
have Mr. Bush Sr. snapping at his heels. He didn’t have a media making
fun of his actions calling it “Zombie Economics”, and he didn’t have
Beijing reverse his polices as soon as they started to bear fruit.
All of which happened in the United States.
You see, back then, China was in a state of an emergency. It was a
serious and a dangerous time. Thus, anyone trying to play political
games for their own personal benefit, did so at the peril of the entire
nation and race.
So, Mr. Deng was permitted to implement a Chinese-version of
Reaganomics. He was given a small and tiny fishing village. He was given
the tiny hamlet of Shenzhen to use as a “test bed”. And, it took off.
The growth was astounding.
Downtown
Shenzhen China when Mr. Deng took over, and what it looks like today.
This is what the “miracle” of Reaganomics does, and it was this force
that was used to completely transform China. However, in doing so, they
HAD to move away from communism. For Reaganomics is wholly incompatible
with communism.
Today, Shenzhen is populated by 14 million busy inhabitants. To put
that in perspective, New York has pretty much had a constant population
of 4 million people over the last three decades.
Seeing the success of this, and other initiatives, too numerous to mention here, we have seen an evolution of China.
China moved from hard-line communist to something else.
China still calls itself “communist”
The Chinese refer to this new way of doing things as “Socialist with Chinese characteristics“, but what it really and functionally is is something quite different. It’s much the same way that Americans still claim that America is a Republic.
We, as Americans, can easily recognize the policy positions as near identical clones to Mr. Ronald Reagan’s “free market” policies. The most that you would ever… ever… ever, hear this reported is when the media begrudgingly admits that China is capitalist.
Though, the progressive mainstream media would NEVER admit to it. Though the hard-line Neo-cons would never say anything positive to their “dog and pony” show that narrates a communist enemy that needs to be opposed at every turn.
Ignorance about China
Yes. You can tell just how knowledgeable any “talking head” is in America when they refer to China as “Chicom’s” (Chinese communist), when in all actuality they are HARD-LINE CONSERVATIVE, and that they INSIST on tradition, and merit.
You know that Americans are manipulated when a Conservative American frets about…
China doing things…
China imprisoning and reeducating radical Uighar Muslims.
Cracking down on “free democracy” movements by SJW folk.
Worrying about “junk” products made in China.
To which, I must say that China’s stance is very American Conservative on these issues…
America doing things…
Radical Muslims must be vetted and kept out of America.
Antifa, BLM, and other SJW’s are not permitted to disrupt day to day life.
Make the products in America instead of importing them.
So, when I see and hear an American conservative take the “talking points” right out of FOX, or CNN, I know that they are just regurgitating the nonsense programming that is used to keep Americans dumb, stupid and living in fear.
If the American government was truly functional, they would have taken immediate steps to control the Antifa, and BLM riots, and mass SJW attacks and disruptions. They would have identified the leaders of the movement and arrested and detained them. They would have isolated the riots and attacks with trained forces and collected the agitators and sent them off to discover what their malfunction was.
Preventing ambulances from helping people.
Damaging stores and public works.
Looting stores and communities.
Throwing chemical milkshakes and beating innocents with bikelocks.
People! This is what a functional and responsible government looks like; Pay attention!
Pay attention!
Today, China is [1] a single-party government. One single party often means totalitarian. But, in my mind it sure as heck beats “pretend democracy” with is mob rule manipulation.
Oh, and by the way, the Chinese do not mess around. They are a serious, serious nation that is run as a meritocracy. Their leaders got there through merit, not by a popularity contest, or through political placement. This is a serious cold-hard fact that many Westerners need to grasp their heads around.
China is not what you think.
The government is [2] nationalist with [3] “China First” objectives. The government is set up to support the Chinese people. Not a global one-world order. As such they know that they must police their leadership. From 1997 though to 2013, the local government leaderships as well as the wealthy business owners started to take advantage and corruption became rife and problematic.
So the president Xi Peng implemented the “Corruption Police”.
This group is as powerful as the IRS in America and answers to no one except the President. No 9th circuit court or judge in Hawaii is going to block or postpone any actions that they take. As such, the bad guys in China are scared shitless. You either come clean with transparency or you WILL suffer the consequences. And believe you me, you don’t want to do Hard Time in China.
The Chinese “Corruption Police”…
The Chinese “Corruption Police”.
They [4] believe in free-market economics, and [5] vigorously defend the traditionally conservative Chinese social way of life. That being said, the Chinese culture is “Chinese conservative”, not “American conservative”. They are similar, but NOT identical.
Statue
of Deng Xiaoping at Lianhuashan Park. Mr Deng brought Reaganomics to
China., and single handedly helped to move China away from rigid formal
communism to the nation that it is today.
China is a traditional conservative nation.
Not, American conservative, mind you. They are Chinese conservative.
Which means that they hold many of the same beliefs and ways of doing
things that an American Conservative would agree with. But not all of them.
Mother and Father are parents.
Father works and supports the family.
Mother takes care of the home and children.
Education is important, and merit based.
Success is achieved through hard work, and merit.
Vices are normal and need social outlets.
Any person who does not agree to the above are ill and need to be medically corrected and isolated from society.
As such, the Chinese family and relationships look like they came right out of the American 1950’s. The man goes out and works hard, has a beer or two with his buddies after work, and then comes home to his family.
And when the man comes home from a hard day’s work, he will give 100%
of his pay to his wife. She will use this money to take care of the
household, invest in the education of the children, and maintain the
social standing of their family with the rest of society.
She in turn, will have his house clothes washed and laid out on the
bed for him. His slippers will be ready for him when he gets inside, and
after he takes his after work shower, he will find a nicely laid out
dinner waiting for him. Often (depending on the person) with a alcoholic
libation waiting for him.
China is a Traditional Nation.
Here is a handy chart that I composed describing the differences between American Progressive Liberal belief, and Chinese beliefs. It goes a long way to illustrate how close modern China is to the traditional American Conservatism. As well as how far removed it is from the progressive reality of America today, and the communist ideal that China came from.
A comparison between the United States and China. Here we compare various elements of culture, society, with the way that things are conducted in China as compared to the United States.
While most of America is enjoying the progressive themed Hollywood
movies (women in leadership roles, people with superpowers granted to
them through luck, and diversity in every scene), the Chinese produce
movies and videos around more traditional themes. The music, even the
more up-beat, aren’t as harsh. The women are sweeter, and they aren’t
wagging their enormous trashcan jugged assess at the screen.
Culture and society are a reflection of what the nation is. In a like vein, Hollywood is a reflection of what America is today. To understand what China is like, all you need do is pay attention to their culture…
What does this mean
The traditional notions of America being the land of “Democracy”
against the evil Communists is wholly outdated. The “cold war” ended
with Ronald Reagan. He finished off the success and rule of communism.
Yet, the oligarchs would have none of this. They argue that it wasn’t
implemented properly. Maybe Pol Pot wasn’t harsh enough. Maybe they
weren’t diverse enough. Maybe they weren’t ruthless enough. They write
about this, and announce their intentions quite openly.
For instance…
Make no mistake, the globe is forming into two sides. Sides, mind
you, that are so diametrically opposed in fundamental belief systems
that the ability to coexist will not be possible.
Here is a map of the world today. The conservative traditionalist
nations are colored in RED, and the “enlightened” progressive globalist
oligarchy are in BLUE. Most other nations are unknown in this regard,
and are left bare and uncolored.
This
is a partial map showing known polarization around the globe.
Traditional conservative nations are colored in red and progressive
socialist nations controlled by an oligarchy are in blue. There is
evidence that many Muslim nations are also traditional, and
conservative, but they differ in some fundamental ways and deviate in
such a way that they are not included in this calculus. In short, if you
look at the map, you can easily see that the former “free world” of
“democracy” have all devolved into mob-ruled oligarchies under the
progressive socialist banner.
The Implications
The implications of such a realization are astounding. By
looking at the globe in this manner, we can clearly see that philosophy
and ideologies are what frame the way that the globe operates today.
Almost every democracy has devolved into mob-rule controlled by a rich oligarchy.
Almost every former communist nation has evolved into a traditional conservative nation.
The
oligarchy owns the media in the regions they control. As such they try
to keep the “cold war” alive through fear to control their people.
Oligarchies help each other out. It is almost like they share the same blood-lines or something.
Conservative nations tend to be populist and nationalistic. They only make agreements that serve their own interests.
Important Note
These are only my opinions. Perhaps, you the reader, have
other ideas. That is fine. This is nothing more than a very simplistic
overview of but one equation of a very complex calculus. For all that I
did was simply map out conservative belief structures against
progressive belief structures globally.
The reader should note that there are cultural differences that also
come into play. For instance, a conservative American would believe that
everyone should own firearms, while a conservative Chinese would
believe that civilian ownership of firearms should be banned.
To the American, it might seem that it really isn’t conservative at all.
After all, the right to self-defense is a role liberty enshrined in
the Bill of Rights. But to the Chinese that seems strange, as in China,
all children are given basic military training at an early age. By the
time they are 16 they know how to work together as a team, and how to
perform the most basic of military disciplines. When the time comes to
undergo more rigorous training, they can opt out with parental consent.
However, with consent, they are able to learn the more martial skills
expected of a soldier.
While the implementation of the right of self-preservation differs,
both conservatives maintain the importance given in this liberty. How it
is implemented is different, that’s all.
In American conservatism, the individual has the Right to exercise
that right and train on his own dime. In Chinese conservatism, everyone
must learn how to protect themselves and the nation if called upon to do
so.
Here is a handy dandy chart of the comparisons between Chinese and American Conservatism. As I have repeatedly stated, Chinese conservatism is similar to, but not identical to American conservatism. (Remember, however, that the Chinese government operates under Chinese Conservative rules, while the American government operates under progressive Marxist rules.)
A comparison between American conservatism and Chinese conservatism. They are similar, but not identical. Never the less American conservatism has much more in common with Chinese conservatism than with the progressive reality that America is today.
The effect of these changes on America…
All of the progressive changes has come at a price for Americans. It has lowered so many of the attributes that made America the fore-most leader in the world…
The United States enjoys the highest degree of personal freedom in the world
Once again, a variety of indicators are used by various study groups to determine the level of personal freedom enjoyed by citizens across the world, including economic freedom (the ability to earn a living wage, and retain it for personal use), political freedom, access to education, religious freedom, and many others.
The evaluation is then compared between nations, and in the final comparison the United States routinely ranks in the second ten. America’s neighbor to the north, Canada, invariably finishes with a higher ranking of personal freedom than the United States. So do New Zealand (consistently first among numerous rankings), Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.
The all too frequent response from Americans ill-disposed to accept such rankings is to huff “If you don’t like it leave,” or some similar retort, as well as denial of the accuracy of the ratings.
After all, the phrase “land of the free” is included in the national anthem, and is far more accurate than any intellectual studies. As with many facts which are in conflict with accepted myths, they are inconvenient, and thus to many must be considered inaccurate.
Nonetheless, the rankings, some of which are far less laudatory of American freedom, exist, there existence is a fact, and whether or not one agrees with their findings they are easily available for study.
The rest of the world may see them as well, and a student in Wellington may well wonder why American leaders claim to live in the greatest degree of freedom in the world, when the facts before their eyes indicate otherwise.
-TopTenz
As well as..
The United States is the richest country in the world
Besides the belief that the United States is the best educated country in the world enjoying the highest standard of living in the history of humanity is the belief that America is the richest nation in the world, evidenced by the vast reserves of minerals still untapped within its borders and off its shores.
Again, the ranking of nations by wealth is subject to the variations of the means used for evaluation, but the United States again does not crack the top five in many rankings. Using the standard of Gross Domestic Product per capita, or GDP by individual, the United States ranked seventh in 2018, trailing international leader Luxembourg by almost half. It also trailed Norway, Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland, and Qatar.
Fox Business used another mix of criteria to list what it called the world’s wealthiest countries in May 2019, but even by its standard, which gave Monaco the top spot, the United States did not crack the top five.
When using privately held wealth as the standard of measure, as did Visual Capitalist in May 2019, the United States jumped all the way to number one, a piece of data which offers a meaty bone of contention for those prone to enter into spirited discussions of what it means for society.
Fortune Magazine listed the fifteen richest countries in the world in November 2017, and in its list it included the United States, ranking it above Iceland, the Netherlands, and Saudi Arabia in 12th.
The argument over which nation is the richest in the world can be made using a variety of data as the facts for supporting it, but by most objective evaluations the United States is not in the top five.
-TopTenz
Not to omit…
The United States has the highest standard of education in the world
The United States has the admiration and respect of the civilized world for the availability and quality of education it offers all of its citizens. Such is a belief held by many to the point that it is an irrefutable fact of the modern world. It is incorrect.
Though the United States ranks near the top in expenditures for education, at all levels, when compared to other civilized nations it is quickly apparent that money spent does not equal education achieved. In the percentage of students completing primary education the United States does not make the top five (Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico).
For secondary education (that is, completing high school) the USA again does not make the top five. Nor does the United States rank in the top five for completion of post high school degrees, though in fairness such degrees mean different things in different parts of the world.
The World Top Twenty Project looked at post education success as well as other indicators to rank civilized nations by education in 2018, with the United States absent from the resulting list of the top twenty, which was led by South Korea.
The United States own Center on International Education Benchmarking, a project of the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), lists the top performing nations of the world in terms of education and does not include the United States among the top ten, instead reporting on the progress made in the listed nations and the changes which could be adaptable to American education systems.
When CNBC listed the top ten most educated nations of the world in February, 2018, it listed the United States as sixth, a ranking bolstered to some extent by the number of foreign students completing advanced degrees at American institutions.
-TopTenz
Conclusion
The last fifty years has seen an absolute role reversal for both the United States and China. The United States today is an oligarchy that treats it’s citizens as serfs in a land with a two-tiered justice system.
Anyone who does not see this is a FUCKING IDIOT.
When you have some poor sop getting 70 years in prison for having a picture of a single nude 14 year old girl on his computer, and a serial pedophile rapist who has repeatedly raped over 1000 children under 14 (Epstein), who got the most lenient sentence in the history of law, should be obvious to everyone except the most partisan hack.
And, let’s not even talk about Hillary Clinton, and Lois Learner. Eh?
Meanwhile, China is a meritocracy. It is advancing forward using the exact same formula that made America the strongest nation in the world in the 1700’s.
To pretend that contemporaneous China, and the United States fit the tired old stereotypical narrative as portrayed by the mainstream media is to play the village idiot. It’s not the same, and does not, in any way, resemble that narrative.
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